> >> On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Wade Reeser wrote:
>
> Are you aware of Steffanson's one year trial of eating nothing but meat?  He
> remained in good health the entire year.  Reportedly he ate a mostly meat
> diet for the remainder of his life.
> Also, Inuit have survived many generations living on nothing but animals.
>
> My statements hardly strike me as 'outlandish.'
>
Wade, please do not take this as a flame of any sort, but your notion that
an all-meat diet is all that is necessary (dietarily speaking) for a long
and healthy life is not only outlandish, but dangerous . . . in that one
or more naive folks on this list might actually believe your assertion
(and take actions therefrom).  Vilhjamur Stefansson's 1-year experiment
is much talked about on this list.  The experiment certainly was
interesting.  However, it was based on a sample of 2 (Stefansson had
colleague join him in the experiment).  No reputable scientist or
nutrition-writer would make any sweeping generalizations based on a sample
of two.  Eubie Blake, the great jazz pianist, started rolling his own
cigarettes at age 11 and smoked nonstop until his death (over age 100; I
saw him perform when he was a hale and spry 96 or 97). So what? When one
looks at large sample sizes, the evidence clearly points to the huge
deleterious effects of smoking.  By the way, your belief that Stefansson
was on an all-muscle diet is mistaken.  Both in the experiment and during
his exploring days, he observed that he could only survive a few days on
lean meat without serious health problems.
     As for the larger sample size of traditional Innuits, also much
mentioned on this list, a number of facts are never brought up:  (1) Their
population was very small, perhaps a few thousand on the very top of the
world where vegetation did not exist; evolution certainly weeded out large
numbers of their ancestors, so that that the tiny populations studied in
the 20th century were probably highly genetically adapted to diet with
little plant-life. (2) The traditional Innuit diet contained fresh kelp in
the summer and dried kelp in the winter.  (3) The diet also contain sorrel
grass and flower blossoms, eaten fresh in the summer and preserved in seal
oil for use in the winter.  (4) When one hit the timber-line, bark and
tree buds were also consumed.  (5) Raw organ meats, including tripe, were
commonly consumed, as were intestinal walls.  (6) Although the Danish
explorers and medical specialists such as Josef Romig and Weston Price
found little evidence of our modern diseases (cancer, heart disease,
hypertension, diabetes), they also found very few old people.  In short,
it is wreckless to advise anyone trying a caveman diet not to be an
omnivore-- an omnivore with a highly varied diet, incorporating flesh, a
balanced consumption of omega-3/omega-6 fats, and a wide variety of plant
foods (seeds, nuts, vegetables, fruits).

Cheers!

Gregg C
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