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People in general are not making conscious choices to seek out foods that give them vitamin C. Why would they? They don't have to seek out vitamin C and they still won't get scurvy with even a 7/11 or burger king diet.

Significant amounts of vitamin C are in potatoes. People in general don't even know that, so I don't buy the idea that people are generally seeking out foods for their vitamin C value to prevent scurvy.

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potatoes are vegetables.

The drive to eat a special kind of food sometimes is common to many mammals. Not much different to being thirsty when you are dehydrated. Everybody experience sometimes a "thirst" for salt (in hot areas), sugar, or (in very cold areas) fat. Is a survival mechanism wired in our brain and not uncommon at all.

I bet that we would intuitively seek for foods rich in vitamin C if getting short of it.

I'm not talking about an innate drive to eat fruit. Many/most western people have been convinced, through things like the food guide pyramid, that fruit is "good for you" and a "healthy choice".

This isn't a case where your body is craving a vitamin, and urging you to eat an orange. Your mind is saying "this is the right thing to do!", when in actuality, it's spiking your glucose.

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