scurvy

Hunger-related diseases such as rickets, scurvy, and tuberculosis were widespread, and in the cities, death from starvation was becoming a daily occurrence.

In Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail Stephen R. Brown writes the mortality rate on long-distance voyages in the 1500s was 50 percent—from scurvy alone.

She was incorrectly diagnosed with everything from shingles to scurvy and was even told to "eat more vegetables" because her prescribed diet had "made my digestive system lazy".

Early white settlers, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia, would eat cranberries as a source of vitamin C to prevent scurvy, “and the berry’s naturally waxy coating allowed for long keeping.”

Researchers rushed to isolate other micronutrients associated with diseases like rickets, scurvy, goiters, and more.