
Scurvy is common and should be diagnosed and treated - curtis
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/11/scurvy_is_common_and_should_be_diagnosed_and_treated.single.html
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bigiain
Interesting discussion form another forum recently - about the first thing a
vet asks when you take your pet to them is "what have you been feeding them?",
yet doctors? This guy had been hospitalized and had a battery of bacterial
tests run before anybody asked him about his diet.

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kevindeasis
Diet and health are absolutely a big problem. One of my big problems is not
access, but the amount of work needed to have a well-balanced meal. Most of
the time I would eat unhealthy just because it is more convenient.

How about everyone else, and do you guys have tips?

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jessriedel
For someone who prizes convenience over maximizing health, just take a
multivitamin. Assuming you're a healthy weight, you'll get 70% of the health
benefit of all these cooking instructions everyone is so eager to provide, but
with 0.1% of the effort.

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Peradine
I'm afraid that the best medical evidence disagrees with this; systematic
meta-analyses of several large randomised controlled trials show that
multivitamins have no effect in the prevention of major diseases
(cardiovascular disease, cancer) or death; and that indiscriminate
multivitamin supplementation may even cause some harms.
[http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1789253](http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1789253)

You can read more about the evidence around multivitamins, and the evidence of
potential harms, here: [https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-evidence-
that-rout...](https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-evidence-that-routine-
multivitamin-use-should-be-avoided/)

~~~
jessriedel
I'm well aware of this. This is advice for someone who knowingly keeps a
nutrient-poor diet. (We're talking about an article on scurvy.) Doctors do
advise vitamins in those cases.

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pakled_engineer
If you have money and no time just outsource to a local meal delivery service
that specialises in nutrition. They are about $250-500/mth CAD here depending
on what you want (weight loss, gourmet, paleo, vegan ect).

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frofroggy
Please drop some names if you've seen meal delivery services that are
rigorously quantitative in nutritional checking. It's common for these
services to check off requirements for different food groups, but rare to see
a meal delivery service show how their daily set of meals satisfy all the 30+
dietary reference intakes/upper limits/adequate intake for specific
age/gender/weight of patrons, at least in the United States under the
Institute of Medicine's guidelines.

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powera
Can I invoke Betteridge's Law of Headlines here?

I don't believe "a guy who is sick and doesn't mention that he eats only white
bread and American cheese" is a sign of a scurvy epidemic. In fact, I actively
disbelieve it.

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Grue3
No, because the title isn't a question. And there are other cases listed.

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aaron695
My issue with articles like these is people start to think things like
vitamins are a problem in their diets.

They are not!

Vitamins don't matter. They are a religious/marketing gimmick!

The people in these articles are extremes and most likely have bigger issues
(and are not HN readers)

Study after study has shown vitamins supplements in rich countries (and hence
vitamins in food) don't mater. Yes, the food religious types think pills are
different to food. Once again that's just not science, it's (marketing)
religion.

As long as you are not in the .1% with extreme issues (Or a few well known
exceptions like pregnant, vegan, lacking sunshine), worry about the bigger
issues.

What matters is the bad stuff you put into your body like highly refined
energy, alcohol, smoke.

Micronutrients only matter for the extreme poor. Which there's a billion of,
but once again not HN readers looking at their personal diets.

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soared
> Vitamins don't matter. They are a religious/marketing gimmick I should have
> stopped reading herre.

