Dr. Joe Schwarcz on lemon, lime, scurvy and vitamin C

Dr. Joe Schwarcz, Director of the McGill Office for Science and Society, discusses the history of Limeys.
Get features, news and to-the-minute updates on developing stories in Montreal at montrealgazette.com
Facebook: montrealgazette
Twitter: mtlgazette
Instagram: montrealgazette

[@verdaderoamor980]

Thanks sir for the historical details about scurvy and vitamin C !

[@jamesadey8744]

I'm amazed at the majority of doctor's lack of curiosity about vitamin C and how they just trot out the "lack of evidence" line, despite mentioning evidence of soldiers and athletes not catching so many colds. Why not try being a human guinea pig and try a couple of grams per day and see what happens? I have been doing exactly that for nearly a year. My health has never been so consistent and no colds either.

[@V21IC]

So true!
Nearly half of common medications are sold without lack of evidence that they'll cure.
They are all have evidence of secondary effects!
I remember that my mom used to make tea using the leaves of lime tree and lemon trees.
I remember that the old folks used to hang orange, grapefruit peel in the house. Why? I don't know. :-(
Everywhere soft drinks are sold and advertised in spite of the evidence that these drinks do not promote a good health!
Yet lime juice/lemonade is surely much better than all of those soft drinks ... even with its 'lack of evidence'!
There's no lack of evidence that these drinks sold are bad for our health!

[@asociatiaademed7417]

The studies are biased. In fact, there is no real study cited. The statistical correlations are not "studies" because they cannot demonstrate causality - or the lack of it.
There are lots of confusions around vitamin C:
- the daily dose which is recommended is to prevent scurvy, no real connection with the body needs - which are most likely far higher.
- the Vitamin C does not prevent anything, simply because an infection goes on its own - but a proper level of Vitamin C support the immune system to better fight the infection
- the Vitamin C is not ascorbic acid, the ascorbic acid is just the main component of the Vitamin C complex (some preliminary studies suggest that there are 4 components in the Vitamin C complex)
- the intake of the Vitamin C is not the same as absorption, absorption could be lower if there is no proper association, if there are problems on the digestive tract (age related, for instance) and in case of synthetic form of Vitamin C (that is because it may be no perfect overlapping of the natural and synthetic form of the ascorbic acid), or because if concomitant intake of sugars
Briefly, I would recommend one lemon a day (entire lemon, with peels) in addition to regular consumption of leafy vegetables. But not more than one apple a day, and not in the same time with the lemon - that because the fructose in the apple may disturb the absorption if Vitamin C complex.

[@normanspurgeon5324]

There are some interesting details left out of this story- the 1st is, that the indians on an island that Capt. Cook visited, initially gave the secret to the capt., by instructing them to eat pine bark. This was 10 years before Dr. James Lind. Another interesting thing is that, despite the knowledge that limes prevent scurvy, after James Lind fell out of fashion, scurvy was again common.

[@rishikumarrishikumar3757]

I like u r room nice

[@ginoasci2876]

Garlic. During the wat tys Russian government requested all the garlic available for use as medicine because they were running out of antibiotics for the soldiers.
So i heard, but I wasn't there.

[@James-el6lj]

I CANT STAND SCHWARZ!

[@bozzskaggs112]

Okay. Why?

[@clairekotze448]

yeet