# Eskimos and Vitamin C

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 11, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355 "2014-11-11T17:14:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355/1 "2014-11-11T17:14:07Z")

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How did the Eskimos get enough vitamin c? Before supermarkets of course.

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**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355/2 "2014-11-11T17:21:01Z")

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They eat/ate a lot of fresh meat.

> **[Arctic32-2-135.pdf](https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca//arctic/Arctic32-2-135.pdf)**
>
> 281.14 KB

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**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355/3 "2014-11-11T17:21:07Z")

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Organ meat.

Raw meat contains residual vitamins lost in cooking.

Residual amounts in stored fruits. Yes, vitamin C doesn’t “keep” But their might be residual amounts in bulk storage. Maybe enough to keep a child healthy.

Small amounts of winter berries. I don’t know if these are gather-able in all polar environments.

They didn’t and lived barely at the limit of survival, or slightly below sometimes, suffering damage and death, in those cases.

I don’t have citations for all of these, but this is pretty much commonly accepted. I don’t think it can be conclusively proven that through their entire history, some or all of these things haven’t happened.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355/4 "2014-11-11T23:37:25Z")

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You might have known the Mighty Cecil answered this one.

[Traditionally Eskimos ate only meat and fish. Why didn’t they get scurvy?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2374/traditionally-eskimos-ate-only-meat-and-fish-why-didnt-they-get-scurvy)

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamin-c/704355/5 "2014-11-12T00:12:24Z")

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> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> Organ meat.
> 
> …

But watch out for that liver.

I learned this one (1) minute ago on Straight Dope.

> **[Most dangerous/permanent vitamin/mineral overdoses?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=740460)**
>
> I take a multivitamin powder that cures me right up when I take a lot of it, but there’s so much in it I’m scared to take multiple doses a day. I feel like if I took 8 servings I’d be cured of all my problems. Should I be worried long-term that it...