James Blunt claims he developed scurvy while trying to become “the picture of masculinity” in university.
Appearing on Table Manners with Jessie Ware, the 46-year-old “You’re Beautiful” singer recalled studying sociology at the University of Bristol with a lot of female students.
“There were 170 girls and only three boys, of which all the girls were vegetarian or vegans,” he said. “So out of principle I decided I’d become a carnivore and just lived on [ground meat], some chicken, maybe with some mayonnaise.
Blunt added: “It took me about six to eight weeks to get very, very unhealthy, see a doctor, who then said, ‘I think you’ve got the symptoms of scurvy.’”
Scurvy, a disease that plagued pirates and sailors hundreds of years ago, is the result of a lack of vitamin C and causes weakness and pain in the limbs.
Blunt said his doctor told him he needed vitamin C in his diet, “so then I took it upon myself to just drink a litre of orange juice every night — and then I immediately developed acid reflux.
“So as you can see, food’s not necessarily my forte.”