A detail not mentioned here was that (if I remember correctly) they initially ate an all-muscle-meat diet and had real problems; it was only after they included a lot of organ meat (imitating the Inuit) that things stabilized. I think eating liver can get you enough Vitamin C, for example.
Yowza. My wife has a PhD in nutrition and teaches a "culture in foods" course at university. It's about how various cultures around the world and throughout history had all their nutritional needs met from their various diets.<p>An explorer might last a little while on an all-meat diet but you'd be missing out on a lot of essential vitamins and minerals. The Inuit for example, only avoid scurvy by getting their vitamin C from raw fish. (Cooking it destroys the little it contains.)<p>Interesting article, though!
More info.<p>Vilhjalmur Stefansson's book, "THE FAT OF THE LAND": <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180802084820/http://highsteaks.com/the-fat-of-the-land-not-by-bread-alone-vilhjalmur-stefansson.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20180802084820/http://highsteaks...</a><p>Vilhjalmur Stefansson's coverage of the same topics from Harper's Monthly Magazine, November 1935:<p>- Part 1: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180109155358/http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson1.htm" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20180109155358/http://www.biblel...</a><p>- Part 2: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180104021843/http://www.biblelife.org:80/stefansson2.htm" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20180104021843/http://www.biblel...</a><p>- Part 3: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171206075942/http://www.biblelife.org:80/stefansson3.htm" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20171206075942/http://www.biblel...</a><p>The Harper's Magazine articles cover the same ground as the book but are better written in my opinion.<p>Also note: I am not associated with any web site.
Something I've read multiple times throughout the years being somewhat curious about nutrition and diets is that the Inuit's would often eat their meat raw.<p>When eaten raw, there can actually be significant carbohydrates present. The mitochondria for instance contain glucose in-flight that apparently gets destroyed by the cooking process.<p>At least that's what I've read. It seems plausible to me that one could get all the nutrition they need eating copious amounts of raw animal flesh, drinking the blood, eating the liver, everything.
I’m curious how other mammals, which are essentially purely carnivorous, get their vitamins and minerals. Presumably they’re similar enough to us that they’d require similar amounts?
Owsley "The Bear" Stanley (legendary SF producer of acid and sometimes sound engineer for Grateful Dead) was huge all-meat guy.<p><a href="http://highsteaks.com/carnivores-creed/owsley-the-bear-stanley/" rel="nofollow">http://highsteaks.com/carnivores-creed/owsley-the-bear-stanl...</a><p>Stayed healthy till his death in a car crash at 76.<p>A fun story here:<p><a href="https://dangerousminds.net/comments/uncle_johns_ham_the_grateful_deads_all-meat_diet" rel="nofollow">https://dangerousminds.net/comments/uncle_johns_ham_the_grat...</a>
All humans are unique in their own way- thus what might be working on some humans it might have a different effect in some others. As an example: My wife has horrible migraines almost every other week. She has followed so many different diets that worked for some others but didn’t even improve her migraines at all. Simply put, be mindful about what you read and what you put in your body.
I found Dr. Ede's website helpful on the subject if anyone else is interested. She also includes a lot of information on other food types as well.<p><a href="http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/food/meats/" rel="nofollow">http://www.diagnosisdiet.com/food/meats/</a>
I pretty much only eat meat and bread. I’ve only eaten vegetables a handful of times in my life, usually because my parents were forcing me when I was young. It’s not so much a conscious choice as just who I am, I personally find vegetables pretty gross.<p>Though it’s not really about vegetables either I think I just have some weird food phobias: I don’t like my food to touch, I only eat ‘plain’ things, I need my food to be homogenous (like smooth salsa vs chunky salsa).
For some perspective, contrast this to the current fashionable trend of recommending plant-based diets where people unwittingly use nutrition epidemiology studies to validate their beliefs: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19100718" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19100718</a>
I like meat, but I wonder if the powers that be reached all the way back to 1929 for this nugget because there's a surplus they want to liquidate.<p><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/7/24/17606958/meat-cheese-surplus-visualized" rel="nofollow">https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/7/24/17606958/me...</a>