If you’ve looked at a list of ingredient for, say, orange juice
or food coloring, you have probably come across the words
‘ascorbic acid’ or ‘ascorby palmitate’. These are highly
technical words and they probably didn’t make sense to you, but
they are merely referring to the different forms of a very
common chemical. It is one that you have been hearing about
since you were a toddler: Vitamin C. Vitamin C provides a great
many benefits, which is why it is constantly being touted by
health specialists. It also has an interesting history. Scurvy,
a disease which caused the softening and bleeding of the organs
and was characterized by bleeding gums, was the bane of British
sailors around three hundred years ago. It was said that a
sailor had a higher chance of dying of scurvy than of being
killed by pirates or being swept away by a storm. Later on, it
was discovered that sailors with lime, orange or lemon juice in
their diet did not succumb to the disease. Thus began the
practice of carrying lime juice on board