Scurvy makes comeback in Australia (and the UK)

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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How much fresh fruit and vegetables do you eat? It seems that Australia has joined Britain in seeing scurvy - a disease historically associated with old-world sailors on long voyages - make a surprise comeback. Caused by vitamin C deficiency, it used to be a common, and often fatal, curse among seafarers who went months without fresh fruit or vegetables.

Now considered rare, health officials have revealed a spate of cases due to poor dietary habits said Jenny Gunton, who heads the Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology research at the Westmead Institute in Sydney. She discovered the disease after several of her patients with wounds failed to heal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/29/scurvy-makes-comeback-australia-dietary-habits-worsen/
 
I don't know about where other people live, but in my area you see a worryingly large number of younger people with bandy legs. It's hard to think other than this being down to vitamin deficiency.
 
Duck59 said:
I don't know about where other people live, but in my area you see a worryingly large number of younger people with bandy legs. It's hard to think other than this being down to vitamin deficiency.
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In this day and age it shouldn't happen, free healthcare, access to fresh fruit and veg even vitamin chews for kids so why is this happening I wonder.
 
Lullabelle said:
free healthcare,
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Which bit of the UK do you live in ? I don't regard over £8.00 per item on a prescription as free. Nor do I consider the money I've paid in [again not free] every week from my salary as anything other than an insurance policy - the only difference being that a private company cannot change the rules when it wants - it [and you] enter into a legally binding two way written agreement, and the government [of whatever colour] does whatever it likes.
As for scurvy and rickets I'm afraid this is mostly a stupid people problem not a health care one - people are told to eat fruit and vegetables if they don't choose to do so the results are their own making.
 
And in the US, fresh fruits are very expensive. And food banks do not give out fresh foods.
 
Cinisajoy said:
And in the US, fresh fruits are very expensive. And food banks do not give out fresh foods.
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I didn't realise that fresh fruit and veg is expensive in the US. Here it depends on the type of fruit - some imported fruits (we have a lot!) tend to cost more if they are exotic fruits. But I'm not sure what you consider to be very expensive?

For example, as we are talking about Vitamin C, one orange, not grown here, costs about 30p (approx. 50 cents). How does that compare?
 
morning glory said:
I didn't realise that fresh fruit and veg is expensive in the US. Here it depends on the type of fruit - some imported fruits (we have a lot!) tend to cost more if they are exotic fruits. But I'm not sure what you consider to be very expensive?

For example, as we are talking about Vitamin C, one orange, not grown here, costs about 30p (approx. 50 cents). How does that compare?
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On oranges, it depends on the time of the year. At the moment the small oranges are 25 cents each. Small regular oranges not the mandarin oranges. Or I can get 10 lbs for $6. The problem with the bagged fruit is you may get some bruised and bad ones. Now lemons and limes are usually cheap.

I guess I should clarify that expensive. Compared to what you pay ours are considerably cheaper.

Compared to processed foods, our fresh stuff is expensive.
And too many parents these days choose cheaper and easier over nutrition.
One pound of cookies is cheaper than one pound of fruit. And way easier to fix.

So expensive was a relative term.
 
Cinisajoy said:
On oranges, it depends on the time of the year. At the moment the small oranges are 25 cents each. Small regular oranges not the mandarin oranges. Or I can get 10 lbs for $6. The problem with the bagged fruit is you may get some bruised and bad ones. Now lemons and limes are usually cheap.

I guess I should clarify that expensive. Compared to what you pay ours are considerably cheaper.

Compared to processed foods, our fresh stuff is expensive.
And too many parents these days choose cheaper and easier over nutrition.
One pound of cookies is cheaper than one pound of fruit. And way easier to fix.

So expensive was a relative term.
Click to expand...

Well its the same here. Carbs like biscuits, puds and bread etc are the cheapest foods. So its not so different. How much do your vegetables cost?
 
Organic or non-organic?
Right now potatoes are $2.97 or more for 10 pounds.
Sweet potatoes and yams are 3 pounds for a dollar.
Brussels Sprouts are 2.79 a pound
Here is one of our grocery stores.
https://www.heb.com
They have all their prices on line. If you need a store use Odessa and pick the University store.
 
Looking at the cheapest potatoes from the supermarket here, 10 pounds of potatoes = 4.5kg. Which costs approx. £4.50 in UK
(potatoes in uk are approx. £1 for a kilo).

$2.97 = £2.33 so your potatoes are half the price of ours! Wow!

This is quite fascinating. I'll check out Brussels later!
 
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