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What a strange title you are thinking. What on earth has limes, sailors and ships got in common?

You’ve heard of English sailors being called limeys? Well, you’ve got the Scots to blame for that, (no wonder they don’t like each other). Back in the mid-1700’s a Scottish naval surgeon by the name of James Lind discovered that drinking fruit juice, namely the juice of limes, prevented scurvy, and of course, much later this led to the discovery of vitamins and their importance in disease prevention.

Meanwhile, those British sailors who travelled the world stacked their ships up with limes for their voyages and earned themselves the nickname ‘limeys’. So now you know.

Naturally, it follows that limes are rich in vitamin C with approximately 50mls of lime juice containing 19mg vitamin C. Similar to other fruit limes are high in bioflavonoids and other antioxidants, which help protect against cancer and other diseases. Like lemons, lime peel is also rich in limonene, another fighter of cancer.

Limes can also be used as a meat, fish and poultry tenderiser, and are used extensively in Thai cooking for flavouring.

However, there are drawbacks to limes. Lime peel also contains chemicals called psoralens, and psoralens make the skin sensitive to sunlight.

Tags: limes, cancer, antixodants, vitamin C