The hobbit — an unexpected deficiency
Joseph A Hopkinson and Nicholas S Hopkinson

Med J Aust 2013; 199 (11): 805-806.
doi: 10.5694/mja13.10218

Objective: Vitamin D has been proposed to have beneficial effects in a wide range of contexts. We investigate the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency, caused by both aversion to sunlight and unwholesome diet, could also be a significant contributor to the triumph of good over evil in fantasy literature.

Design: Data on the dietary habits, moral attributes and martial prowess of various inhabitants of Middle Earth were systematically extracted from J R R Tolkien’s novel The hobbit.

Main outcome measures: Goodness and victoriousness of characters were scored with binary scales, and dietary intake and habitual sun exposure were used to calculate a vitamin D score (range, 0–4).

Results: The vitamin D score was significantly higher among the good and victorious characters (mean, 3.4; SD, 0.5) than the evil and defeated ones (mean, 0.2; SD, 0.4; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Further work is needed to see if these pilot results can be extrapolated to other fantastic situations and whether randomised intervention trials need to be imagined.

Full MJA article

I assume they’re treating different species of critter as though they have the same Vitamin D requirements, which may not be the case at all.

I too am sceptical about this research.

I mean what about the Ents? Surely they would push the goodies Vit D score through the roof.

They didn’t include Ents in the study. Time I wrote my first LTTE…