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History
Cod Liver Oil: From Medicine to Superfood
The mainstay winter tonic from 1800s Britain that prevented rickets in industrial cities - the discovery of vitamin D was made through cod liver oil.
Era: Modern Region: Northern Europe Year: 1800
📖 Overview
In smoky industrial cities of 19th-century Britain, children rarely saw sunlight and developed rickets - bones softening from vitamin D deficiency. Cod liver oil, rich in vitamins A and D, was administered by the spoonful to prevent it. The 1922 discovery of vitamin D came from studying rickets in cod-liver-oil-treated children. Sales exploded during WWI and WWII when children in blitzed cities received it as ration supplement. Todays fish oil supplements descend from that tradition.