An attempt to spite the vegans went very, very wrong for James Blunt.
Chatting with Jessie Ware on her Table Manners podcast, the singer revealed that he actually developed scurvy while eating an all-meat diet during his time at the University of Bristol in the 1990s.
“On the sociology side of things there were 170 girls and only three boys, of which all the girls were vegetarian or vegans,” he explained. “So out of principle, I decided I’d become a carnivore and just lived on mince, some chicken, maybe with some mayonnaise.”
“And it took me about six to eight weeks to get very unhealthy and see a doctor, who then said, ‘I think you’ve got the symptoms of scurvy,'” he continued. Scurvy, often associated with pirates who wouldn’t find nourishment out at sea, is caused by severe vitamin C deficiency. Lack of vitamin C, found in fruit and veggies, can cause anemia, exhaustion, bruising, rashes and more.
Blunt was healed by following the doctor’s order to drink orange juice every day, but he admitted the citrus eventually gave him acid reflux.
Listen to the whole podcast, featuring the scurvy tale, below.