Is Low-Carb Eating Increasing Scurvy?

Eating Low-Carb? Don't Forget Potatoes, Other Foods Rich in Vitamin C

June 10, 2004 -- The ancient mariners had scurvy. And apparently, plenty of Americans today have it, too. We're not getting enough vitamin C, the main preventative for scurvy or vitamin C deficiency, researchers say. Could low-carb eating be to blame?

The report appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

It provides results from a large nationwide survey, showing that seniors and children get the most vitamin C in their diet. However, men and women aged 25 to 44 get the least -- and are most at risk for developing scurvy.

"A considerable number of U.S. residents are vitamin C deficient," writes researcher Carol Johnston, a professor of nutrition at Arizona State University.

Other studies have shown similar results, she writes. One U.S. study shows that 18% of adults get fewer than 30 milligrams daily of vitamin C. Another study shows that up to 20% of the 13- to 18-year-old group gets fewer than 30 milligrams daily.

Because scurvy is rarely suspected, people with the symptoms -- fatigue, limping, bleeding gums, or swollen extremities -- may not be tested for vitamin C deficiency, she explains. Very often, these patients are misdiagnosed and medicated for other disorders -- not for their vitamin deficiency.

The recommended daily allowance for vitamin C is 75 milligrams for women and 90 milligrams for men. While some people get too much vitamin C in their diets, many others get too little, she says. The body excretes excess vitamin C in the urine.

With the low-carb craze, the vitamin C-rich potato -- once the centerpiece of a healthy diet -- has been pushed aside, notes Althea Zanecosky, MS, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and professor of sports and nutrition at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She agreed to comment on Johnston's study.

"Potatoes are a great source of vitamin C and other nutrients," Zanecosky tells WebMD. Other vitamin C-rich fruits are also taboo for some people adopting a low-carb diet.

The Study Details

In her study, Johnston used data from health and diet surveys completed by 15,769 Americans aged 12 to 74. Each person surveyed also had his or her blood tested for vitamin C levels.

Among her findings:

• 14% of males and 10% of females were vitamin C deficient.
• Only 6% of 12- to 17-year-olds were deficient.
• The adults aged 25 to 44 had the worst vitamin C levels.

Nearly one-quarter -- 23% -- of males aged 25 to 44 were vitamin C deficient, compared with 15% of 65- to 74-year-olds.

Among females, 20% of those aged 25 to 44 were deficient, whereas 13% of 65- to 74-year-olds were also vitamin C deficient.

Also:

• Smokers were nearly four times as likely to be vitamin C deficient as nonsmokers.
• Those who didn't take a vitamin supplement were three times as likely to be deficient in vitamin C.

Seniors are most likely to purchase and use vitamin supplements, notes Johnston. "Vitamin C consistently ranks as one of the most frequently purchased supplements," she writes.

"We showed that individuals who did not use supplements in the previous month had a greatly increased risk of vitamin C deficiency," she notes. "For many years, physicians, dietitians, and other health professionals have hesitated to discuss vitamin supplements with patients."

Seniors are also more likely to take their medicine with orange juice," says Zanecosky. "A lot of seniors buy fortified orange juice, which has vitamins C, E, D, and calcium added. Children are getting juices fortified with vitamin C."

How often does she have to say it? "Eat fruits and vegetables! We always encourage people to eat a variety. If all you eat is an apple, you won't get vitamin C."

Potatoes are low in fat and calories. "The problem is what people put on top of the potato," Zanecosky tells WebMD. "Salsa adds vitamin C, and is a low-fat, low-cal alternative to sour cream, margarine, or butter. Salsa even counts as an extra vegetable! Broccoli also has vitamin C. Broccoli with cheddar cheese over a potato -- you get calcium, vitamin C -- a lunchtime meal."

Also, ample amounts of vitamin C are found in:

• Guava
• Papaya
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Orange juice
• Oranges
• Strawberries
• Cantaloupe
• Grapefruit
• Pineapple
• Potatoes
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Peppers

Zanecosky advises eating foods rather than relying on supplements. "The foods have many more other vitamins and minerals that you don't get in a pill," she notes. "They're low in calories, low in fat, and fill you up. Don't tell me you can't find food on this list that's good."

SOURCES: Johnston, C. American Journal of Public Health, May 2004. Althea Zanecosky, MS, RD, spokeswoman, American Dietetic Association; and professor, sports and nutrition, Drexel University, Philadelphia.

http://my.webmd.com/content/Article...m?printing=true

Cooking food may destroy Vit. C. It's interesting that the authors concentrate on potatoes as a source. Why not other veggies that are accepted on LC plans?
Most animals can produce the Vit. C their bodies need. Humans and earlier direct ancestors have lost this ability. We would probably all do well to supplement with at least 1 gram of C. per day. Not only is it an important antioxidant but it also suppresses cortisol levels.

If you are interested in how peoples that ate all meat diets avoided scurvy... read below.

From: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010119.html

Stefansson argued that the native peoples of the arctic got their vitamin C from meat that was raw or minimally cooked--cooking, it seems, destroys the vitamin. (In fact, for a long time "Eskimo" was thought to be a derisive Native American term meaning "eater of raw flesh," although this is now discounted.) Stefansson claimed the high incidence of scurvy among European explorers could be explained by their refusal to eat like the natives. He proved this to his own satisfaction by subsisting in good health for lengthy periods--one memorable odyssey lasted for five years--strictly on whatever meat and fish he and his companions could catch.


A few holdouts didn't buy it. To settle the matter once and for all, Stefansson and a colleague lived on a meat-only diet for one year under medical supervision at New York's Bellevue Hospital, starting in February 1928. The two ate between 100 and 140 grams of protein a day, the balance of their calories coming from fat, yet they remained scurvy free. Later in life Stefansson became a strong advocate of a high-meat diet even if you didn't live in the arctic; he professed to enjoy improved health, reduced weight, etc, from meals consisting of coffee, the occasional grapefruit, and a nice steak, presumably rare. Doesn't sound half bad, and one might note that until recently the Inuit rarely suffered from atherosclerosis and other Western ailments.

One of the things that bothered me the most in doing LC is the vit.C part.
I mean, if you are eating a good diet, why would you need supplements?
Some diets, like the Optimal Diet discourage the supplementation of the diet. So where does the vit.C come from ?

If you go into Atkins OWL adding berries,raw tomatoes and some lemon juice, you can get some vit.C but I don't think is enough for the RDA. Should we counter this by eating raw fish (sashimi) and rare beef ? That would really be ideal.

By the way, anyone knows if freezing berries and other fruit destroys vitamin C ?

( as a side note, having been a vegetarian once, the mainstream vegs in my country are macrobiotics. It always bothered me that they had everything thorougly cooked, including fruit and vegs. Where's the vit.C in this case, wouldn't they get scurvies ? Maybe the vit.C thing is not that linear ...)

I hate alarmist articles like this that suggest something, then demonstrate nothing to prove what they're suggesting.

Taking a look at my stats on Fitday PC, I've averaged 94% of my RDA for vitamin C for the last two months. That's from diet only, that doesn't include the 1000 mg I supplement with.

1 cup of orange juice = 163% of DV for vitamin C
1/2 red bell pepper = 472% of DV for vitamin C

I'll take the latter, thanks.

I'm not going to plug it into fitday, but I guarantee that pre-LC, I wasn't getting nearly as much vitamin C.

This article, "Is Low-Carb Eating Increasing Scurvy?" posted on WebMD is a prefect example of the ignorance of the major media and nutritional professional about diet. The title casts doubt on the low-carb diet and doesn't answer the question.

I eat more vegetables that are high in vitamin C on the low-carb diet than I ate before. Dr. Robert C. Atkins made the same claim on TV. I eat tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and peppers three meals a day. These vegetable are from the list containing a large amount of vitamin C.

Vitamin C deficiency is obtained from eating the low-fat, low-calorie, processed food diet. This is the true reason scurvy is present in our modern society.

Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson proved by observing the Eskimos that an all meat diet did not cause scurvy even though food count books say there is no vitamin C in meat. None of the Eskimos or any of Stefansson's companions develope scuvy on the all meat diet of salmon. He wrote about the all meat diet in Harper's Monthly Magazine in November 1935. It is obvious that modern professional nutritionist haven't learned much in the last 100 years.

"In 1906 I went to the Arctic with the food tastes and beliefs of the average American. By 1918, after eleven years as an Eskimo among Eskimos, I had learned things which caused me to shed most of those beliefs. Ten years later I began to realize that what I had learned was going to influence materially the sciences of medicine and dietetics. However, what finally impressed the scientists and converted many during the last two or three years, was a series of confirmatory experiments upon myself and a colleague performed at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, under the supervision of a committee representing several universities and other organizations.
Not so long ago the following dietetic beliefs were common: To be healthy you need a varied diet, composed of elements from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms. You got tired of and eventually felt a revulsion against things if you had to eat them often. This latter belief was supported by stories of people who through force of circumstances had been compelled, for instance, to live for two weeks on sardines and crackers and who, according to the stories, had sworn that so long as they lived they never would touch sardines again. The Southerners had it that nobody can eat a quail a day for thirty days.

There were subsidiary dietetic views. It was desirable to eat fruits and vegetables, including nuts and coarse grains. The less meat you ate the better for you. If you ate a good deal of it, you would develop rheumatism, hardening of the arteries, and high blood pressure, with a tendency to breakdown of the kidneys - in short, premature old age. An extreme variant had it that you would live more healthy, happily, and longer if you became a vegetarian.

Specifically it was believed, when our field studies began, that without vegetables in your diet you would develop scurvy. It was a "known fact" that sailors, miners, and explorers frequently died of scurvy "because they did not have vegetables and fruits." This was long before Vitamin C was publicized."

You can read the entire article written by Stefansson at:

Stefansson 1 - Eskimos Prove An All Meat Diet Provides Excellent Health.

Kent

According to this article, the only foods that contain tghe most Vitamin C is fruits with veggies at the end and no mention of fish or meat. Bull-poop once again!

Anthony Colpo's take on this is:

http://www.theomnivore.com/Scurvy.html

This is just the usual scaremongering. Just a using a different slant.

HOWEVER, those links provided by Kent are FASCINATING. I encourage you to read it. It's amazing how so little has changed since 1918, regarding the myths of low-carbing.

But it's just a really interesting account for too many reasons to list. Just read it and you will see

Oh and of particular interest is part 3 where Stephansson dispells the idea that Scurvy is actually cured by fruits and vegetable.

Quotes like this, which are so totally wrong and unconnected with reality always send my BS monitor into the red zone. Why the potato? Why not pick on orange juice, the normal poster child for Vit. C advocates and also verboten on our way of eating? Sounds to me like someone got a grant from the potato growers association to "study" (read "promote") the healthy benefits of the potato and its central place in the American diet. Could be wrong, but wouldn't be surprised.

The other thing that chaps my a** about this article is the phenomenon mentioned above of a sensationalistic title, with nothing inside that talks about any kind of connection between perceived deficiancies in Vitamin C in Americans and eating low-carb. If you look at the details of her study, she makes no connections whatsoever, at least none mentioned in this article. If the original article is just as bad, then the journal deserves to be laughed at in the scientific community.

Here's the abstract
The title of the article is actually, "Trends in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Adults in the United States: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1994–2000" and the abstract indicates that it's only looking at fruit and vegetable consumption in the US and concludes that it's basically remained the same from 1994-2000. Not terribly exciting. Nor, when you do a search on the entire issue does the term "scurvy" ever appear.

It seems that the WebMD article is the one to jump to these sensationalistic conclusions and takes a huge leap from a study that shows we've not increased (and also not decreased) our fruit and vegetable consumption to banting (low-carb dieting) is causing scruvy. That's quite a jump. Worthy of winning the Olympics, if you ask me. Jeanie Lerche Davis deserves a gold medal, and the supposed reviewer, Charlotte Grayson, MD, should get credit for the assist.

Actually, after writing this, I happened to glance at The Omnivore's response to this article and am extremely gratified that he came to the same conclusions. It shows I'm actually starting to learn something.

Plane Crazy
Who wants to bring back the word "banting" to replace "low-carb dieting" See this thread for the history of the word.

LCers generally replace Potatoes with:

Cauliflower (1 cup cooked): 119 %DV Vitamin C; 2g Net CHO; 5g Fiber
Broccoli (1 cup cooked): 227 %DV Vitamin C; 4g Net CHO; 5g Fiber

...which contain MANY TIMES as much Vitamin C as their precious:

Baked Potato (1 cup cooked): 20-34 %DV Vitamin C; 23g Net CHO; 3g Fiber
Mashed Potatoes (1 cup cooked): 16 %DV Vitamin C; 26g Net CHO; 2g Fiber

As you can see its really a Non-Issue. I get plenty of Vitamin C. Not to mention, for those of us past Induction, 1 cup of Strawberries has 144% of your Vitamin C for only 8g Net Carbs [3g Fiber.]

According to fitday, the past month I've eaten 1150 calories on average, 55% fat, 16% carbs, and 30% protein. I have eaten 45 net carbs.

Despite this low amount of food, I have obtained about 200% DV for C on average. The only vitamins I am low on are thiamin, folate, and niacin (86%, 91%, and 96% respectively... all of which would easily be met to well over 100% if I ate more than 1150 calories!).

I am moderately low on many minerals due to the caloric restrictive nature of my diet, which is why I take a multimineral supplement. If I were eating enough calories to maintain my weight (1500-1600 I assume) I highly doubt I would need any supplements.

Doing LC the right way - eating lots of veggies, moderate fruit, healthy dairy, and adequate amounts of meat & eggs, not lots of pork rinds - you should not be deficient in anything.

Plus the fact 1 cup of broccoli or cauliflower has virtually no calories, but 1 cup of mashed or baked potato is positively LOADED with sugar calories (not to mention the fat calories from the dollops of gravy and butter or sour cream required to make the bland heavy stuff platable).

Potatoes are really quite a poor source for any nutrition other than rapidly absorbed raw caloric sugar energy. But then again, so is coca cola . If you are going to run a marathon, eat a potato (or drink pop). If not, eat the broccoli and enjoy good health.

Jicama has about 24 mg of vitamin C per half cup (I love jicama!)

Here's a cool link: http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/usda.html
(Vitamin C content in Foods)

Here's my Vitamin C intake stats from the last 3 months per Fitday PC. I think it takes the average for each month and then, obtains the Mean, Median, Minimum, Maximum, and Standard Deviation from those values:



That would put the RDA (90 mg/day) -1.3 SD from the Mean and the DV (60 mg/day) -7.8 SD from the Mean. It is considered unusual [statistically] to have a value more than 2 SD from the Mean. So, it would be highly unusual for me to have consumed less than my Daily Value of Vitamin C. In fact, that means that AT LEAST 98.4% of the time, I obtained my Daily Value of Vitamin C.

Mean is the average intake. In this case it would be the Average of the Averages for the last 3 months. Median is the middle number. Since, Fitday uses the averages for each month, and I only sampled 3 months, that would be the average for April [June is the minimum and May is the maximum.] Standard Deviation represents how much my intake varies. 4.67 means my intake does not vary significantly from month-to-month.

Red bell peppers have fruits beat, hands down, with vitamin c abundancy.

Oh, for crying out loud! On a bad day I get 100% RDA of vitamin C! A good day is usually 300-400%. I am so tired of hearing the whining coming from these people, and most of it lamenting the loss of potatoes in people's diets.