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A Balanced Diet in Antarctica
Factfile |
 A Balanced Diet in Antarctica |
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Early Exploration |
Around the time of the 15th Century, when sailors and explorers began to undertake long sea voyages to in search of new sea routes, nothing was understood about the importance of a balanced diet.
A typical diet for explorers and sailors at this time were daily rations of oatmeal, butter, sugar, peas, salt pork, cheese and biscuits know as `hard tack' (Biscuits made from flour and water and cooked twice so they remained dry during long sea voyages). While this diet may not sound very mouth-watering, imagine eating it after months at sea when the provisions had turned rotten!
One health problem that started to emerge as people explored further into the unknown was Scurvy. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C in the body and we now know that vitamin C can be found in a range of foods, especially fresh fruit and vegetables. Early explorers had no fresh fruit and vegetables in their diet and so scurvy was a big problem. Because no one knew what the cause was of Scurvy, the condition would be left alone, getting worse and worse until the person died. Vasco da Gama lost 2/3 of his crew to Scurvy while making his way to India in 1499 and Magellan lost more than 80% of his crew to the disease in 1520, while crossing the Pacific.
Old Sailing ship - Brian R Page
However, in the 1590s a polar explorer also managed to avoid Scurvy by accident. William Barents who went looking for the North-east Passage (a sea route to China over the top of Russia), was the first European to survive an entire winter in the Arctic when his ship became stuck in ice. After their food supplies had run out, Barents and his crew trapped arctic foxes for food and on some occasions, they also managed to trap polar bears. While the eating of raw meat saved them from getting Scurvy, (they would not have known that raw meat contains vitamin C) one night the crew poisoned themselves eating a stew made from polar bears' livers. The liver of a polar bear contains a huge amount of vitamin A but it wasn't until the early 20th Century that Scientists discovered that it is possible to die from ingesting too much of this vitamin. Although Barents and most of his men managed to survive the winter - Barents died on the journey home to Holland.
Scurvy as a problem for adventurers and sailors wasn't conquered until 1793, when Sir Gilbert Blane (1749-1834) physician to the Royal Navy, introduced lemon juice to the Fleet to combat it. By 1800, the problem of Scurvy had almost disappeared.
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