Vitamin C were provided with lime juice instead, and in 1860 lime juice was used throughout the Royal Navy, giving rise to the American use of the nickname "limey" for the British. Captain James Cook had previously demonstrated the advantages of carrying "Sour krout" on board, by taking his crews to the Hawaiian Islands without losing any of his men to scurvy. For this, the British Admiralty awarded him a medal. The name "antiscorbutic" was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for foods known to prevent scurvy. These foods included lemons, limes, oranges, sauerkraut, cabbage, malt, and portable soup. In 1928,
Limey Limey "Limey" is a predominantly North American slang nickname for a British person. It originally referred to British sailors. The term is thought to have originated in the 1850s as "lime-juicer", later shortened to "limey", and originally used as a derogatory word for sailors in the British Royal Navy. Since the beginning of the 19th century it had been the practice of the Royal Navy to add lemon juice to the sailors' daily ration of grog (watered-down rum). The vitamin C (specifically acid) in citrus fruits prevented scurvy , and helped to make these sailors some of the healthiest of