Why didn't the Eskimos get scurvy?

January 11, 2026 •

4 min read

Before the 20th century, millions of sailors died from scurvy on long sea voyages, yet native Arctic populations, now known as Inuit, thrived on a diet almost devoid of traditional plant-based foods. This astonishing fact raises the question: why didn't the Eskimos get scurvy?.

Quick Summary

The Inuit avoided scurvy primarily by consuming raw and fresh animal products, particularly organs and muktuk (whale skin and blubber), which contain sufficient vitamin C. Cooking meat destroys this crucial vitamin, but the traditional diet preserved it.

Key Points

Raw Animal Foods: The Inuit tradition of eating fresh, raw or frozen animal meat, particularly organs like liver and brain, preserved the vitamin C that is typically destroyed by cooking.
Muktuk: Whale skin and blubber (muktuk) was a significant and vitamin C-rich dietary staple, providing a potent source of the nutrient.
Organ Meats: Organ meats from seals, whales, and caribou contain higher concentrations of vitamin C than muscle meat and were a regular part of the Inuit diet.
Low Carbohydrate Diet: A low-carbohydrate diet may have reduced the body's need for vitamin C, increasing the absorption efficiency of the smaller amounts available from their food.
Consumption of Entire Animal: The cultural practice of consuming the entire animal, including organs and skin, ensured that all available vitamins and nutrients were utilized.
Contrast with Explorers: European explorers often suffered from scurvy because they relied on preserved foods and cooked their meat, destroying the vitamin C content.

The Hidden Source of Vitamin C

The prevailing assumption for centuries was that vitamin C could only be obtained from citrus fruits, fresh vegetables, and berries. However, this idea was challenged by the health of Arctic populations. Explorers and scientists noted that Inuit people, who lived in harsh environments where plant cultivation was impossible, rarely suffered from scurvy. The answer lies in their traditional diet, which provided vitamin C from an unexpected source: fresh, raw animal tissues.

Raw Meat and Organ Meats

One of the most critical factors was the consumption of raw or lightly cooked animal products, especially organ meats. Cooking destroys vitamin C, so European explorers who boiled their food lost this vital nutrient, even if they started with fresh meat. In contrast, the Inuit ate many parts of their hunted prey raw or frozen, preserving the vitamin content. Research has confirmed that fresh meat, particularly liver and brain from marine mammals and caribou, contains enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy.

Seal and caribou livers: These organs are notably rich in vitamin C and were a dietary staple.
Seal and whale brain: Another source of vitamin C, consumed raw as part of the traditional diet.
Muscle tissue: While muscle meat contains some vitamin C, the concentrations are much lower than in organs. For example, 100 grams of seal meat has only about 2 mg of vitamin C, compared to higher concentrations in organs and skin.

The Importance of Muktuk

Among the most prized Inuit delicacies is muktuk, the skin and blubber of whales, such as the beluga. Muktuk was a particularly excellent source of vitamin C, often containing 36 mg per 100 grams, a value comparable to orange juice. Its antiscorbutic properties were recognized early in the 20th century.

The Low-Carbohydrate Advantage

Another theory, supported by some nutritional science, posits that the Inuit's low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet may have reduced their bodies' need for vitamin C. Both glucose and vitamin C rely on the same transport protein to enter cells. In a high-carbohydrate diet, glucose can outcompete vitamin C for absorption. With minimal carbohydrate intake, the body's need for vitamin C is lower, and the limited supply is absorbed more efficiently. This means that the relatively modest amounts of vitamin C found in the traditional Inuit diet were more than sufficient.

Traditional Inuit Diet vs. European Sailor's Diet


Feature	Traditional Inuit Diet	European Sailor's Diet
Primary Food Source	Fresh and raw animal meat, organs, and fat	Dried, salted, and preserved foods; hard tack; limited fresh produce
Vitamin C Content	Present in raw meat, especially muktuk, liver, and brain	Largely non-existent due to lack of fresh food and preservation methods
Preparation Method	Often eaten raw, frozen, or lightly boiled, preserving vitamin C	Cooked for long periods, which destroys heat-sensitive vitamin C
Organ Consumption	Regular consumption of vitamin-rich organs	Organs often discarded or considered inedible
Carbohydrate Intake	Very low, which may increase vitamin C absorption efficiency	High in preserved grains, which can inhibit vitamin C absorption
Health Outcome	Historically low rates of scurvy	High rates of scurvy mortality

How Cultural Practices Protected Against Scurvy

Beyond just eating the right foods, traditional Inuit cultural practices reinforced these nutritional protections:

Consuming the entire animal: The Inuit showed great respect for their prey, utilizing every part of the animal, including the vitamin-rich organs and skin. European explorers, by contrast, often saw such practices as barbaric and consumed only the muscle meat.
Freshness and Preservation: Hunting provided a constant supply of fresh food. When stored, meat and fish were often frozen, which preserved the vitamin C content much better than the drying and salting methods used by European sailors.
Knowledge of the Environment: While less common than animal foods, Inuit also traditionally gathered plants, including berries and specific roots and seaweeds, which supplemented their vitamin C intake. This knowledge was based on centuries of living in the Arctic environment.

Conclusion

The question of why the Eskimos didn't get scurvy highlights a significant blind spot in Western nutritional understanding for centuries. The traditional Inuit diet, rich in fresh, raw animal organs, skin, and blubber, contained sufficient levels of vitamin C to prevent the disease. Combined with the preservation of vitamins through minimal cooking and potentially higher absorption efficiency due to a low-carbohydrate diet, the Inuit effectively protected themselves from a disease that plagued and killed millions of European sailors. The Inuit's deep knowledge of their ecosystem and respect for every part of the hunted animal proved to be their key to nutritional health in the harsh Arctic climate. For a deeper dive into the history of this disease and its connection to exploration, see the World Health Organization's report on scurvy in emergencies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scurvy is a disease caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). It results from the body's inability to produce collagen, leading to weakness, bleeding gums, easy bruising, and fatigue.

Yes, fresh meat, especially organ meats like liver, does contain vitamin C. However, the vitamin is sensitive to heat, so cooking significantly reduces or eliminates its content. Eating it raw or frozen, as the Inuit did, is key to retaining this nutrient.

European sailors ate diets consisting of preserved, cooked foods that lacked vitamin C. In contrast, the Inuit diet featured fresh, raw animal products and organs, which supplied the necessary vitamin C. The cooking process used by Europeans destroyed the vitamin.

Muktuk is the skin and blubber of whales, which was a traditional Inuit food. It is surprisingly rich in vitamin C, with some varieties having as much as orange juice per 100 grams. This provided a potent source of the vitamin.

The theory that a low-carbohydrate diet may reduce vitamin C requirements has some scientific basis, but it's not the sole reason the Inuit avoided scurvy. Studies suggest that a low-carb diet may improve the body's absorption efficiency of vitamin C, but the primary reason was still the dietary intake from raw animal foods.

While their diet was predominantly meat-based, traditional Inuit populations did gather and consume some native plants, berries, roots, and seaweeds when available. These also contributed to their overall vitamin C intake, though they were a smaller portion of the diet.

Traditional diets are becoming less common among modern Inuit due to increased access to processed foods. Studies have shown that with this shift away from traditional diets, vitamin C deficiencies have sometimes appeared in modern Inuit communities, especially among those who rely on store-bought food.