The Discovery and History of Vitamin C

Scurvy is what ultimately encouraged physicians to dig deeper into the importance of nutrients. In 1753, scurvy was finally linked to nutrition deficiency by the British medical community. Then in 1769, a young British physician named William Stark began performing nutrition experiments on himself. For 31 days, Stark ate only bread and water. Then Stark began to gradually add more foods. Some of these foods were milk, goose meat, figs and olive oil. Within two months, Stark’s gums were sore and bleeding. Stark died approximately seven months later due to malnutrition and what had very likely become scurvy. He had adequate meat in his diet but immensely lacked fruits an vegetables.