Do you know why Brits are called limeys? It's not exactly a nice term, but where does it come from?

It all goes back to the time Britain ruled the seas. To avoid getting scurvy, lemons, high in Vitamin C, became an essential part of sailors' diets. They were even added to grog! At some point, the Brits switched to limes, as they were more prominently grown in their colonies. Hence, limeys.

Nowadays, of course, vitamins simply come in a pill form. This came a little too late for British sailors, as Vitamin C was not synthesized until 1933 by future Nobel laureate Tadeusz Reichstein. So Brits had no choice but to dilute delicious grog with icky lime juice...

Sadly, the Brits didn't realize that limes have much less Vitamin C than lemons, and the way they were stored and processed robbed them of their scurvy-fighting power.

If only they could have popped vitamins...