On 9/8 Todd Moody wrote:
>I understand (from somewhere) that the total cholesterol of
>Andersen, Stefansson's partner in the 1928 Bellevue experiment,
>went up. But I've never seen the actual report, and Stefansson
>doesn't mention this in Fat of the Land. I realize that total
>cholesterol measurements don't mean much, but I would be curious
>to know the numbers.
Here are quotes and numbers from the published data on one year meat-only
diet conducted at Bellevue Hospital. I think they are of interest to many.
Participants:
Vilhjalmur Stefansson 48 yrs old (arctic explorer, single)
a "...well developed man, though his muscles were soft and flabby"
Karsten Andersen 38 yrs old (fruit grower/accompanied VS on expedditions)
a "...thin, well-developed adult with strikingly tanned skin and almost bald"
Range of daily intakes over the one year period:
2000-3000 cal/d
100-140 g protein/d
200-300 g fat/d
7-12 g carbohydrate/d (glycogen from the meat)
"In this experiment, it was found that boiled meat was preferred to fried.
Broiled steaks and chops were used, - V.S. choosing lamb frequently while
K.A. ate beef almost exclusively."
"Both subjects received considerable quantities of bone marrow at various
times..."
"The men led somewhat sedentary lives" (during the experiment)
V.S. K.A.
inital wt: 72.2 kg inital wt: 59.4 kg kg
after 1 year: 69.4 kg after 1 year: 58.0 kg
Date Cholesterol (mg/100cc) Date Cholesterol (mg/100cc)
2/27/28 263 (before meat diet) - - (before meat diet)
3/2/28 315 3/7/28 600
4/20/28 307 3/23/28 285
5/28/28 286 4/13/28 268
8/25/28 300 5/28/28 310
12/12/28 226 11/26/28 500
1/23/29 235 1/9/29 400
3/6/29 212 1/24/29 800 (after 20 hr fast)
4/4/29 218 (2 wks general diet) 3/20/29 200 (2 wks general diet)
About the cholesterol values, it was stated:
"The cholesterol values of both subjects were high. K.A. had a maximum of
800mg/100cc on one occasion. This did not persist after the meat diet was
discontinued and is therefore attributed to the large quantity of ingested
fat. A visible lipemia was likewise noted." (The latter refers to a
"cloudiness" in the drawn blood.)
I find these cholesterol numbers to be fascinating. Assuming roughly the
same numbers would be gotten with today's methodology, it seems that living
on domestic meat and fat, both men had cholesterol values that were far
higher than is commonly found to be the case for modern hunter-gatherers.
Stefansson's numbers rose initially for a few months, but then seemed to
more or less steadily decline.
The very high values for Andersen are astounding. One would presume, as the
authors do, that this is spillover from the amount of fat consumed. Which
raises the possibility of an interesting speculation:
On a ketogenic diet, there should be an optimal ratio of fat to protein for
each individual based on that individual's genetics, activity level,
residual carb intake, etc. This seems likely based on simple
biochemistry/physiology. In FAT OF THE LAND, there's a nice account of a
friend of Stefansson's that went on an strict pemmican diet in the tropics
for 9 weeks, varying the ratio of fat to meat, eventually ending up about
at roughly the same ratio as VS and KA at Bellevue. There are also studies
showing that Greenland Eskimos ate a quite different protein:fat ratio -
280 g protein:135 g fat: 54 g carbohydrate (similarly for the Baskin Island
Eskimo). Thus, quite different ratios can be consumed by different people
under different circumstances. If there are indeed optimal ratios under
different conditions, then one can wonder what might happen in the
circumstance that too much fat is eaten relative to the amount of protein?
The answer could be something like the situation with K.A. Namely, rather
than burning all of the fat intake for energy, the body temporarily has a
bit of a problem problem dealing with the excess (low insulin levels would
make storage difficult) and spills it into the blood.
If there's any validity to this line of thinking, this could be a general
concern for anyone consuming more fat than they can readily burn on a
ketogenic diet. Careful monitoring of the protein:fat ratio by each
individual might therefore be an important aspect of ketogenic (or even
near-ketogenic) dieting that's not properly appreciated.
References:
Tolstei, E. (1929) J. Biol Chem. 83: 753-758.
"The effect of an exclusive meat diet on the chemical consituents of the
blood"
McClellan, W.S., Rupp, V.R., and Toscani, V. (1930) J. Biol Chem. 87: 669-680.
"CLINICAL CALORIMETRY XLVI. Prolonged meat diets with a study of the
metabolism of nitrogen, calcium, and phjosphorus"
McClellan, W.S. and E.F.DuBois (1930) J. Biol Chem. 87: 651-668.
"CLINICAL CALORIMETRY XLV. Prolonged meat diets with a study of kidney
function and ketosis"
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