Thanks Adrienne.  I knew Horne advocated an all raw fruit diet and
have read that book in its entirety a while back but was just
wondering where he got that information (not that I am inclined to
believe it) but wanted some comments on its possiblity of truth or not
because I am a curious person and not really educated in physiology.

Kim


On Nov 13, 2007 6:56 AM, Adrienne Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> In a message dated 11/12/2007 4:17:56 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Can anybody comment on this quote from a book by Ross Horne:
>
> Studies of primitive Eskimos in the late 1800s and early 1900s
> revealed no evident cancer or heart disease among them. These robust
> and happy people, living in their natural state, existed almost
> entirely on animal protein and fat, and so impressed were some of the
> observers, they adopted all-meat diets themselves.
>
> What these people overlooked was that the Eskimos' vigorous health
> was enjoyed only by the young, and that by middle age, when their
> vital organs began to break down, the Eskimo aged rapidly, and
> suffered severe osteoporosis. At the same time, the Eskimos had a very
> low resistance to infectious diseases whenever exposed to them. Dr
> Samuel Hutton, one of the observers (1902-1913) in his book Health
> Conditions and Disease Incidence Among the Eskimos of Labrador,
> confirmed the fact that cancer and other diseases of civilization were
> not evident among the Eskimos but had this to say about their life
> expectancy:
>
> "Old age sets in at fifty and its signs are strongly marked at
> sixty. In the years beyond sixty, the Eskimo is aged and feeble.
> Comparatively few live beyond sixty and only a very few reach seventy.
> Those who live to such an age have spent a life of great activity,
> feeding on Eskimo foods and engaging in characteristically Eskimo
> pursuits . . . Careful records have been left by the missionaries for
> more than a hundred years.
>
> "Perhaps the most striking of the peculiarities of the Eskimo
> constitution is the tendency to hemorrhage.* Young and old alike are
> subject to nose bleeding and these sometimes continue for as much as
> three days and reduce the patient to a condition of collapse."
>
> *The reason for this hemorrhaging is the large quantities of EPA
> in the fats of the Eskimo diet, as described in Chapter 10. EPA, and
> the improved circulation it affords, accounts also, to a great extent,
> for the Eskimos' freedom from cancer and heart attack.
>
> Vilhjalmur Stephansson spent many years among the primitive Eskimos
> around the turn of the century, observing them specifically for signs
> of cancer. He wrote the book Cancer, a Disease of Civilization and
> erroneously concluded that an all-animal diet was the key to their
> health. Later under the auspices of the US meat industry, Stephansson
> adopted an all-meat diet. His blood cholesterol rose to over 600 mg%
> and he developed serious cardiovascular disease.*
>
> *The Eskimos consumed most of their food (including large
> amounts of fat) uncooked, and thereby to a great degree were protected
> from hypercholesterolemia as explained in the discussion on raw food.
>
> I believe the part about Stephansson's blood cholesterol rising is innacurate
> because the results of his cholesterol and other bloodwork were published and
> while I don't remember the exact numbers, his cholesterol fell during all
> meat diet.  Just do a search on Stephansson's works and read for yourself.  Many
> of his papers ie Adventures in Diet etc are posted on various websites.  As
> for the bleeding problems caused by excessive EFAs -- that I believe.  I also
> think the aged appearance among the Eskimos had much to do with harsh climate
> and ingesting spoiled fish (a delicacy according Stephansson's writings -- they
> would bury it and let it get "ripe" then dig up and eat it -- he analogized it
> to the Western practice of eating spoiled milk in the form of cheese -- moldy
> cheese is a delicacy here) --  EFA's are prone to rancidity and purposely
> eating spoiled EFA's would create a slurry of free radical damage. If they didn't
> die young of strokes, my view is that certainly would have gotten more cancer
> down the road. Stephansson hypothesized that the Eskimo women had a
> prematurely aged appearance and I think that is partly subjective (no make-up), partly
> because of the harsh climate and largely because of the regular ingestion of
> spoiled fish.  They also ate plenty of caribou and boiled fish -- but
> Stephansson rights about the spoiled fish delicacy.  One last thing -- Ross Horne
> advocated an all-fruit diet.  So I take anything he has to say with a grain of
> salt...on my hunk of fatty meat of course.
>
>
>
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