La sidra no prevenía el escorbuto en las travesías oceánicas

Abstract

In various fora it has been argued that the reason why sailors from the Basque Country and other regions did not suffer from scurvy during the Age of Discovery was that they took cider with them on their voyages, thereby avoiding the onset of this deficiency disease. However, since cider does not actually contain vitamin C, it is likely that this belief stems from the simple fact that seafarers took this beverage with them on their expeditions to Newfoundland and were not troubled by survey. Nevertheless, the absence of this disease was not due to drinking cider, but rather to the fact that the period between landfalls was never more than a month, which is not long enough for scurvy to develop.