This should be titled the annals of forgotten research
The person you're thinking of is very likely Vilhjalmur Stefansson an
early arctic explorer and Harvard trained anthropologist. There's a
Wiki article here about him
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson> The part of
special interest is
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson#Low-carbohydrate_diet_of_meat_and_fish>
which says:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefansson is also a figure of considerable interest in dietary circles,
especially those with an interest in very low-carbohydrate diets.
Stefansson documented the fact that the Inuit diet consisted of about
90% meat and fish; Inuit would often go 6 to 9 months a year eating
nothing but meat and fish—essentially, a no-carbohydrate diet. He found
that he and his fellow explorers of European descent were also perfectly
healthy on such a diet. When medical authorities questioned him on this,
he and a fellow explorer agreed to undertake a study under the auspices
of the Journal of the American Medical Association to demonstrate that
they could eat a 100% meat diet in a closely observed laboratory setting
for the first several weeks, with paid observers for the rest of an
entire year. The results were published in the Journal, and both men
were perfectly healthy on such a diet, without vitamin supplementation
or anything else in their diet except meat and entrails.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The JAMA article from 1930 is here
<http://www.jbc.org/content/87/3/651.full.pdf>
In a nutshell, Stefansson and his explorer partner Andersen spent an
entire year at Bellvue hospital in New York City in a supervised
experiment where for an entire year the 2 men ate nothing but meat. You
can read all the medical details in the report but, in summary;
absolutely no negative effects on their health but some improvements for
one in blood pressure. They lost a small amount of water weight at the
beginning but thereafter maintained their weight eating 2000-3100
calories/day of nothing but meat and fat. Steffanson comments in
another article that he estimated his calorie intake to be 80% from fat.
They did get sick once when a researcher asked them to eliminate the
fat and do protein only. That made them sick in a couple of days which
was alleviated by eating brains cooked in bacon fat.
Here <http://www.foodforthoughtstore.com/> you can find a lot more about
meat diets including Stefansson's own articles "Adventures in Diet"
<http://www.foodforthoughtstore.com/adventures-in-diet/> originally
published in Harper's Magazine as a 3 part series in 1935. Also, "The
Bellevue Experiment"
<http://www.foodforthoughtstore.com/the-bellevue-experiment/> which is a
chapter from his autobiography.
One important point I should mention is that surviving solely on meat
requires that at least some of it be eaten raw or only lightly cooked.
Meat does contain vitamin C (required to avoid scurvy) but the vitamin C
is destroyed by cooking or preservation.
Chuck Norcutt
On 4/23/2013 8:06 PM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> I was taught that the Inuit have a different enzyme setup that allows
> them to do this but it seems that is nonsense. I had an article about
> a gentleman who lived with the Inuit for six months and then trialled
> a meat only diet in New York when he returned, His conclusion - it's
> very healthy, but only if you eat all the fat as well!
>
> Andrew Fildes afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.soultheft.com
> Author/Publisher: The SLR Compendium -
> http://www.blurb.com/books/3732813
>
>
>
> On 24/04/2013, at 9:34 AM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>
>> The Masai <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people#Diet> and the
>> Inuit <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Diet> apparently didn't
>> get the memo. They subsist largely on blood, meat, milk, fat, fish
>> and practically no veggies at all. They also don't have heart
>> disease. Science needs to explain the outliers as well. No fair
>> ignoring the data that doesn't fit the theory. There's too much of
>> that going on.
>
--
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