Although his work was initially ignored, gradually as a result of Lind's experiments, more and more ships took aboard lemon and lime juice. Because of these provisions, scurvy was eradicated as the scourge of British sailors. The epithet 'limey' also became a common insult lobbed at British seamen, because of their well-known consumption of limes. Lind's pioneering work was to show systematically and empirically the problems with the food and water given to sailors (he also conducted experiments on the connections between the spread of typhus and infected water). Without Lind, the folk knowledge that citrus fruit could prevent scurvy would still have existed, but Lind demonstrated through an epidemiological study that eating citrus products could prevent and cure the disease better than other existing remedies. Since Lind, similar disease-eradication campaigns through nutrition have been conducted through outside authorities in the U.S., including fortifying grain-based products with thiamine to prevent beriberi, putting iodine in the salt supply to...

It enabled sailors to perform their duties in sound health, and most importantly conclusively established a clear link between the prevention of disease and nutrition.
References

James Lind. (2011). BBC History. Retrieved June 9, 2011 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lind_james.shtml

A short history of scurvy. (1992). Nutrition Health Review. Retrieved June 9, 2011 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0876/is_n62/ai_12296592/