An old urban legend, told to me in good faiith
So this guy goes to Edinburgh university and decides that (this in the time of student grants) food is frankly too expensive to bother with, so he buys a hundredweight of porridge oats and lives on porridge for the whole term, having calculated that it's a decent healthy source of calories, fibre and protein.

Three months on, Scotland has its first case of scurvy since WWI.
(rogerzilla, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 19:02, 17 replies)

Three months on, Scotland has its first case of scurvy since WWI?
Are you sure?

(Also, this was the plot of an episode of BBC's daytime drama, 'Doctors')
( Ghoti Fingers, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 19:15, closed)

ok
Jocky Wilson probably had it several times.
(rogerzilla, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 19:20, closed)

I've heard this at two universities, both times it was a friend's brother's mate that did it, and it's probably never happened.

On the other hand, in my first year I knew a girl who did something similar with Ecstasy, which worked out far better.
( cs1ca, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 19:27, closed)

I don't think you can substitute ecstasy for food.
If she did, scurvy would probably have been quite a way down her list of problems.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 21:23, closed)

She got scurvy, but it didn't matter because massive drugs.
( cs1ca, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 21:46, closed)

there have been a few cases of sort-of-scurvy recently
when new age health spastics have taken massive doses of vitamin C as a magical cure for the common cold and then when they stop taking it they get ill as fuck

pricks
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Sat 28 Jun 2014, 20:31, closed)

If there is any truth to this, it definitely wasn't Edinburgh University.
All the students there are richer than God.
(Plague Hedgehog 'posting crap', Sat 28 Jun 2014, 21:18, closed)

Really?
More so than a Cambridge or Oxford? (I know nothing about England's education system)
(drunksteve is not drunk, Sun 29 Jun 2014, 0:59, closed)

Nah, they're the ones who aren't quite rich or bright enough to get to Oxbridge (or St Andrews).
Still mainly posh and loaded though.

At the risk of turning this week into pharmacy anecdotes, I used to do locum work in Edinburgh University pharmacy. This was back when there were prescription charges in Scotland, before the SNP's unsustainable referendum bribe they were scrapped.

"Ai've gort a prescription."
"I'll just ask you to fill in the back of it. Do you have to pay?"
"Neaurgh, ai deaurn't believe ai have to pay."
"I see you're over 18. Do you have a medical exemption, or are you claiming any benefits?"
"Oh, maybe ai do have to pay then."

Most of the chinless wonders could ask daddy to buy them a pharmacy.
(Plague Hedgehog 'posting crap', Sun 29 Jun 2014, 11:20, closed)

^Only got the grades for Napier ^

(Roger McGough-Pipe, Sun 29 Jun 2014, 17:18, closed)

Jack Napier?

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 30 Jun 2014, 10:50, closed)

This is ancient
I first heard this story in 1987. Can't remember which university was in the story, but I do remember hearing it form a guy at University of East Anglia. I think it was still claimed to be someone in Scotland.
( Batter Pudding Hurler is a figment of your imagination, Sun 29 Jun 2014, 12:23, closed)

One of my relative's sons while at uni
lived on cheeseburgers and chips for 3 years.
Looked like a greasy walrus.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Sun 29 Jun 2014, 14:47, closed)

Yeah, just like the Japanese student that bought 3 years worth of Instant Ramen and wound up starving to death because it didn't contain any nutrients or protein.
*Rolls eyes*
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Sun 29 Jun 2014, 16:04, closed)

Confused, is protein not nutrient.

( d.r._and_quinch when will you be famous?, Mon 30 Jun 2014, 10:34, closed)

I just typed it at is usually appears in The Metro.

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Tue 1 Jul 2014, 14:10, closed)