Will you get scurvy eating only meat?
The claim: You'll get scurvy if you only eat meat.
Last checked 8 October 2026
Not proven either way, and the honest answer is more interesting than either side's.
Scurvy is prevented by far less vitamin C than the daily amount on food labels. USDA's standard entries for steak and ground beef have no measured vitamin C; they record it as assumed zero. Some organ meats were measured: chicken liver covers the scurvy level in about 56 g, while beef liver would take about 770 g. We found no published study that has measured vitamin C in the blood of people eating only meat.
How much vitamin C stops scurvy?
Much less than the recommended daily amount. The US RDA is 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men, but it isn't set to prevent scurvy. The National Academies set it higher, and say why:
To provide antioxidant protection, a Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 90 mg/day for adult men and 75 mg/day for adult women is set based on the vitamin C intake to maintain near-maximal neutrophil concentration with minimal urinary excretion of ascorbate.
Beyond the amount needed to prevent scorbutic gingivitis (less than 10 mg/day)
The signs and symptoms of scurvy can appear within 1 month of consuming less than about 10 mg/day of vitamin C.
Neutrophils are white blood cells. So there are two different questions: enough to avoid scurvy (about 10 mg a day), and enough to reach the RDA (75–90 mg). The two are easily confused.
What USDA actually says about vitamin C in meat
For steak, ground beef, lamb loin, bacon, wild salmon and sardines, USDA's vitamin C figure isn't a measurement: its database records it as "assumed zero". Beef liver, kidney and heart, chicken liver and egg were measured. The table says which kind each figure is, and how much of each food you would need for 10 mg.
| Food (raw unless stated) | Vitamin C per 100 g | What kind of figure | Grams for 10 mg |
|---|---|---|---|
| beef spleen | 45.5 mg | measured | 22 g |
| chicken liver | 17.9 mg | measured | 55.9 g |
| beef kidney | 9.4 mg | measured | 106 g |
| lamb liver | 4 mg | measured | 250 g |
| farmed Atlantic salmon | 3.9 mg | measured | 256 g |
| beef heart | 2 mg | measured | 500 g |
| beef liver | 1.3 mg | measured | 769 g |
| Atlantic cod | 1 mg | measured | 1000 g |
| Atlantic mackerel | 0.4 mg | measured | 2500 g |
| 80/20 ground beef | — | assumed zero by USDA (not measured) | — |
| ribeye steak | — | assumed zero by USDA (not measured) | — |
| lamb loin | — | assumed zero by USDA (not measured) | — |
| pork chop | 0 mg | imputed | — |
| bacon | — | assumed zero by USDA (not measured) | — |
| chicken thigh | 0 mg | imputed | — |
| egg | 0 mg | measured | — |
| wild Atlantic salmon | — | assumed zero by USDA (not measured) | — |
| sardines (canned in oil) | — | assumed zero by USDA (not measured) | — |
Cooking lowers these figures. NIH: "Vitamin C is water soluble and susceptible to heat, so cooking can reduce the vitamin C content of food." The figures here are for raw foods (the sardines are canned), so cooked figures would usually be lower.
And the same for plants
For comparison, a few of the plant foods on this site, per 100 g, per common portion and per 10 mg:
| Food | Vitamin C per 100 g | Portion and its vitamin C | % of the US RDA (women / men) | Grams for 10 mg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| red bell pepper | 128 mg | 1 cup, chopped (149 g): 190 mg | 254% / 211% | 7.83 g |
| kale | 93.4 mg | 1 cup (21 g): 19.6 mg | 26.2% / 21.8% | 10.7 g |
| broccoli (boiled) | 64.9 mg | 0.5 cup, chopped (78 g): 50.6 mg | 67.5% / 56.2% | 15.4 g |
| Brussels sprouts (boiled) | 62 mg | 0.5 cup (78 g): 48.4 mg | 64.5% / 53.7% | 16.1 g |
| potato (boiled) | 7.4 mg | 1 medium (2-1/4" to 3-1/4" dia.) (167 g): 12.4 mg | 16.5% / 13.7% | 135 g |
| cabbage | 36.6 mg | 1 cup, chopped (89 g): 32.6 mg | 43.4% / 36.2% | 27.3 g |
On vitamin C per gram, the vegetables are far ahead: one chopped cup of raw red bell pepper covers the full RDA more than twice over, and half a cup of boiled broccoli covers about two-thirds of the women's RDA.
The year two men ate only meat
In the late 1920s the Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson and his colleague Karsten Andersen ate only meat for a year under medical observation. The report is often quoted as proof that a meat diet is complete. What it actually says:
The portions of the animal used included muscle, liver, kidney, brain, bone marrow, bacon, and fat.
Clinical observations and laboratory tests revealed no evidence to show that these men suffered any ill-effects from their prolonged use of an exclusive meat diet.
In evaluating its vitamin content, the absence of all diseases which are commonly classed as being due to a lack of vitamins was taken as evidence that the diet contained the necessary amounts of these accessory food factors.
These studies were supported in part by a grant from the Institute of American Meat Packers, Chicago.
So: no scurvy in two men over a year, on a diet that included liver and kidney, with vitamin C never measured, partly paid for by the meat industry. It is real evidence, and it is thin.
Does cutting carbohydrate cut the need?
A common argument from the carnivore side: vitamin C and glucose compete to get into cells, so with no glucose you need less vitamin C. Part of it is true. A 2019 review of how the body handles vitamin C says:
DHA has been shown to compete with glucose for transport through several glucose transporters
DHA uptake is expectedly inhibited by excess glucose
the negligible amount of oxidized vitC present in plasma of healthy individuals precludes that GLUT mediated transport per se is of major importance in the diverse distribution of vitC.
DHA is the used-up (oxidised) form of vitamin C. The competition with glucose is real, but the same review says healthy blood carries almost none of that form, so this route matters little for getting vitamin C around the body. We found no published study that has tested whether people on a no-carbohydrate diet need less vitamin C. One small trial points that way, without settling it:
Interestingly, plasma vitamin C concentrations increased on consumption of the LC diet (P<0.05).
Antioxidant supplements may be warranted if LC WL diets are consumed for a prolonged period.
That trial had 16 obese men, 4 weeks per diet, with the low-carbohydrate diet at 4% carbohydrate, not meat only (from its abstract). A rise in blood levels on its own doesn't show whether the men needed less vitamin C or simply ate more of it.
What about the Inuit?
Traditional Arctic diets are the other example both sides reach for. A 2002 study measured vitamin C in Inuit traditional foods:
raw fish (Coregonus spp.) eggs (49.6 +/- 12.3 mg/100 g, mean +/- S.D.)
caribou liver (Rangifer tarandus) (23.8 +/- 4.9 mg/100g), ringed seal liver (Phoca hispida) (23.8 +/- 3.8 mg/100g), and blueberries (Vaccinium uliginosum) (26.2 +/- 4.9 mg/100g)
TF contributed only 20% of total intake
The richest traditional sources measured were raw fish roe, whale skin, caribou and seal liver, and blueberries. ("TF" in the last quote is traditional food; in the women studied, most vitamin C now came from store-bought food.)
What people on carnivore diets report
A 2021 survey of 2,029 adults eating a carnivore diet found few reported symptoms of vitamin deficiency, in their own words:
A worsening or new presentation of these symptoms was reported in <2% of survey participants
no physiological or biochemical measurements were obtained.
Self-reported, from people who chose to answer and who were still on the diet. It is a reason to study the question properly, not an answer to it.
What you'll hear at the table
The same arguments come up whenever this is argued over. Here is each one, checked against its source.
You'll hear: Meat has no vitamin C at all.
Doesn't hold up
USDA's figures for steak and ground beef are assumed zeros, not measurements, and several organ meats were measured with real amounts (see the first table on this page).
You'll hear: Without fruit and vegetables you'll get scurvy.
Doesn't hold up
Scurvy is prevented by about 10 mg a day (quoted at the top of this page). Some organ meats supply that in a small serving (see the first table), and two men ate only meat for a year with no sign of deficiency disease (see above). Whether muscle meat alone is enough over years is the open question in the verdict below.
You'll hear: Meat is full of collagen, which already contains hydroxyproline, so a meat eater doesn't need vitamin C to make collagen.
Doesn't hold up
Vitamin C's best-known job is helping make collagen: it lets the body add a hydroxyl group to proline after the proline is already built into a new collagen chain. Hydroxyproline from food can't be slotted in instead:
posttranslational modifications (PTMs) in the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), including glycosylation and vitamin C–dependent hydroxylation.
Hyp is not a proteinogenic amino acid, and it cannot be re-incorporated into newly synthesized proteins
Hyp is hydroxyproline. Eating collagen supplies amino acids, but the step that needs vitamin C still happens in your own cells.
You'll hear: Carbohydrate blocks vitamin C from being absorbed in the gut, so people who eat carbs need far more.
Doesn't hold up
Vitamin C as it mostly comes in food (ascorbate, ASC below) is taken up in the gut by a transporter of its own, not by the glucose transporters:
the intestine contains the low affinity/high capacity active transporter SVCT1
ASC is efficiently transported across the apical membrane of the intestinal epithelial cells via active transport
The used-up form, DHA, does compete with glucose (see "Does cutting carbohydrate cut the need?" above), but the same review says healthy blood carries very little of it.
You'll hear: Your body uses vitamin C to make carnitine. Meat supplies carnitine ready-made, so a meat eater uses less vitamin C, and some scurvy symptoms may really be a carnitine shortage.
Partly holds up
The chemistry is right, and foods from animals supply most of the carnitine in American diets. But the body makes its own, and whether vitamin C shortage slows that hasn't been shown:
Ascorbate is a cofactor for two alpha-ketoglutarate-requiring dioxygenase reactions
Foods of animal origin provide most of the carnitine in American diets.
Endogenous carnitine synthesis does not appear to be affected by dietary carnitine intake or carnitine excretion and is sufficient to meet the carnitine needs of healthy people
It has been suggested that early features of scurvy (fatigue and weakness) may be attributed to carnitine deficiency.
It remains unclear whether vitamin C deficiency has a significant impact on the overall rate of carnitine synthesis from endogenous substrates.
Carnitine is one of vitamin C's jobs, not the only one: collagen still needs it.
You'll hear: Guinea pigs with no vitamin C lived about twice as long when given glutathione, an antioxidant, so the antioxidants in meat may stand in for vitamin C.
Partly holds up
The experiment is real. In 1993, researchers gave guinea pigs on a diet with no vitamin C a modified form of glutathione (GSH ester):
We found that treatment with GSH ester significantly delays appearance of the signs of scurvy
animals on the ascorbate-deficient diet were injected at 8 a.m., 4 p.m., and midnight with physiological saline, GSH ester, or GSH, as indicated.
died or were sacrificed on day 21 or 22
kept for 40 days and showed no significant signs of scurvy
administration of GSH itself is highly toxic to ascorbate-deficient guinea pigs when given in divided i.p. doses totaling 3.75 mmol/kg daily.
The third quote is the guinea pigs injected with saline; the fourth is some given the ester. So a modified glutathione, injected three times a day, delayed scurvy in guinea pigs, and plain glutathione in large doses was toxic to them. It doesn't show that the glutathione in meat does this in people; we found no study that tested that.
You'll hear: The RDA for vitamin C doubled between the 1970s and 2000, maybe because people started eating more sugar.
Partly holds up
The figure did rise. The 1989 report explains how the edition before it reached 60 mg, and says how loosely any vitamin C RDA is set:
In the previous edition of the RDAs, an intake of 45 mg/day for adult men was considered to provide an average pool size of 1,500 mg, and an intake of 60 mg/day was recommended to provide a margin of safety.
The dietary allowances for vitamin C must be set, somewhat arbitrarily, between the amount necessary to prevent overt symptoms of scurvy (approximately 10 mg/day in adults) and the amount beyond which the bulk of vitamin C is not retained in the body
The 2000 rise to 75 and 90 mg came with a new aim, antioxidant protection, judged by white blood cells (quoted at the top of this page). Neither report gives sugar as a reason.
You'll hear: The FDA took vitamin C off food labels because nobody is short of it.
Partly holds up
Since the 2016 label rules, vitamin C is optional on the Nutrition Facts label. The FDA's reasoning cuts both ways:
Vitamins A and C are no longer required but can be included on a voluntary basis.
while the prevalence of inadequate intake of vitamin C is high, prevalence of vitamin C deficiency is not apparent in the U.S. population as only about 6 percent of the general population had serum vitamin C concentrations below 11.4 micromoles (µmol)/L
Some comments questioned why we are increasing the DV for vitamin C from 60 mg to 90 mg when we determined that the declaration of vitamin C on the Nutrition Facts or Supplement Facts label should no longer be mandatory.
The overall prevalence (+/-SE) of age-adjusted vitamin C deficiency was 7.1 +/- 0.9%
smokers and low-income persons were among those at increased risk of deficiency.
So deficiency is uncommon in the US but not absent, and the same rule that made vitamin C optional on the label raised its Daily Value.
You'll hear: Breast milk has hardly any vitamin C, yet babies thrive on it.
Doesn't hold up
Breast milk is where babies get their vitamin C, and the US amount for infants is set from it:
Infantile scurvy is rarely seen, because human milk provides an adequate supply of vitamin C
an average concentration of vitamin C in human milk of 50 mg/L
Per 100 g, USDA's figure for human milk is 5 mg, against 4.6 mg for a raw apple.
You'll hear: Liver has more vitamin C than apples.
Partly holds up
It depends on the liver. Per 100 g raw, from USDA: chicken liver 17.9 mg, lamb liver 4 mg, beef liver 1.3 mg, and a raw apple with its skin 4.6 mg. So chicken liver, yes; lamb and beef liver, no. These are raw figures; liver is usually cooked, which lowers them, while apples are usually eaten raw.
Some organs go further than liver: raw beef spleen has 45.5 mg, enough to reach the 10 mg scurvy level in about 22 g.
You'll hear: Too much vitamin C turns into oxalate and can cause kidney stones.
Not settled
Vitamin C does break down partly into oxalate. Whether high intakes, usually from supplements, raise it enough to matter is what's argued over:
The primary products of oxidation beyond DHA include oxalic and threonic acids
Controversy exists as to whether increased intake of vitamin C can significantly increase urinary excretion of oxalate
There are some concerns surrounding high vitamin C intakes, such as the formation of kidney stones and excess iron absorption, but these are not generally considered a risk in healthy individuals.
The referee's verdict
- Right, for the meat side: scurvy needs far less vitamin C than the RDA, some organ meats carry measured vitamin C (beef spleen and chicken liver most of all), and two men ate only meat for a year with no sign of deficiency disease.
- Right, for the plant side: USDA's standard entries for steak and ground beef have no measured vitamin C, cooking lowers what there is, and a single cup of red pepper covers the full RDA more than twice over.
- Not known: whether a meat-only diet without organ meats keeps blood vitamin C above the scurvy level for years. We found no published study that has measured it.
Try it with your own plate
Build the two plates on your table and see the vitamin C row, with each zero labelled as measured or assumed.
Sources
- Institute of Medicine (2000). Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids, chapter 5: Vitamin C. National Academies Press.Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: NCBI Bookshelf page text, in Chrome
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin C: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals (updated July 31, 2025).Evidence: Regulatory assessment. A US government summary of the evidence.Read: page text, in Chrome
- McClellan WS (1930). The effect of the prolonged use of exclusive meat diets on two men. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 6(3), from page 216.Evidence: Case report. Two men, observed for a year, no comparison group.Read: archive.org full text of the journal issue, in Chrome
- Lykkesfeldt J, Tveden-Nyborg P (2019). The Pharmacokinetics of Vitamin C. Nutrients 11(10): 2412.Evidence: Cell study. A review; the glucose competition it describes was shown in cells.Read: full text, in Chrome
- Johnstone AM et al. (2011). Effects of a high-protein, low-carbohydrate v. high-protein, moderate-carbohydrate weight-loss diet on antioxidant status, endothelial markers and plasma indices of the cardiometabolic profile. British Journal of Nutrition, pages 282–291.Evidence: Human trial. 16 men, 4 weeks per diet, not a meat-only diet.Read: abstract on the University of Aberdeen research portal, in Chrome
- Fediuk K, Hidiroglou N, Madère R, Kuhnlein HV (2002). Vitamin C in Inuit traditional food and women's diets. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 15(3): 221–235. doi:10.1006/jfca.2002.1053Evidence: Measured in foodRead: abstract on US EPA HERO, in Chrome
- Lennerz BS et al. (2021). Behavioral Characteristics and Self-Reported Health Status among 2029 Adults Consuming a "Carnivore Diet". Current Developments in Nutrition, article nzab133.Evidence: Human observational study. Self-reported online survey; nothing was measured.Read: full text XML from Europe PMC, in Chrome
- StatPearls: Biochemistry, Collagen Synthesis. NCBI Bookshelf.Evidence: Not applicable. A medical textbook chapter describing how collagen is made.Read: NCBI Bookshelf page text, in Chrome
- Belostotsky R, Frishberg Y (2022). Catabolism of Hydroxyproline in Vertebrates: Physiology, Evolution, Genetic Diseases and New siRNA Approach for Treatment. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23(2): 1005. doi:10.3390/ijms23021005Evidence: Not applicable. A review of how the body breaks down hydroxyproline.Read: PMC full text, in Chrome
- Rebouche CJ (1991). Ascorbic acid and carnitine biosynthesis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 54(6 Suppl): 1147S–1152S.Evidence: Animal study. A review; the evidence it describes is from enzymes, liver tissue and guinea pigs.Read: PubMed abstract, in Chrome
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Carnitine: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals (updated April 17, 2023).Evidence: Regulatory assessment. A US government summary of the evidence.Read: page text, in Chrome
- Mårtensson J, Han J, Griffith OW, Meister A (1993). Glutathione ester delays the onset of scurvy in ascorbate-deficient guinea pigs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 90(1): 317–321. doi:10.1073/pnas.90.1.317Evidence: Animal study. Guinea pigs; the glutathione was a modified form given as a treatment, not food.Read: abstract on PMC and the article PDF's text layer, in Chrome
- National Research Council (1989). Recommended Dietary Allowances, 10th edition, chapter 8: Water-Soluble Vitamins. National Academies Press.Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: NCBI Bookshelf page text, in Chrome
- US Food and Drug Administration (2016). Food Labeling: Revision of the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels. Final rule. Federal Register 81(103), 27 May 2016.Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: Federal Register text on govinfo.gov, in Chrome
- US Food and Drug Administration. Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label (content current as of 03/28/2024).Evidence: Regulatory assessmentRead: page text, in Chrome
- Schleicher RL et al. (2009). Serum vitamin C and the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency in the United States: 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 90(5): 1252–1263.Evidence: Human observational study. Blood levels measured in a national sample of 7,277 people.Read: PubMed abstract, in Chrome