Continuing from the book The Steak Lover's Diet..............

"On June 13, Merriwether Lewis wrote in his report:'My fare is really
sumptuous this evening, Buffaloe's hump, tongue, and marrow bone-pepper,
salt, and a good appetite.'

The men ate heartily, 6,000 or more calories of meat each day.  None
were overweight or underweight.  Meat with very limited carbohydrates is
completely utilized by the body and excess body fat is not formed.

In satisfying the 9-10 pounds of meat required by each of the men, when
Lewis and Clark hunted they had to bring in 300 or more pounds of game
each day.  Other Lewis and Clark hunters killed more than they could
transport and the carcasses would be retrieved  by sending out
horse-drawn vehicles.

Ambrose describes how the meat 'dripped with fat as it turned on the
spit-creating a smell that sharpened already keen appetites.'

Despite the dangerous medical treatments dispensed by Lewis, seriously
sick members survived because of the meat diet.  For one example, when
the Indian girl developed a severe pelvic infection(possible gonorrhea
involving the fallopian tubes and uterus), ran an extremely high fever,
and was near death, Lewis treated her with sulphur-a poison.  But when
she was able, Lewis fed her broiled buffalo(he wrote)'well seasoned with
salt and pepper and a soup of the same meat.  I think therefore there is
every rational hope of her recovery...' And she did recover.

An example of the tremendous stamina that their almost 100 percent meat
diet gave these men include the one where a detachment of Lewis and
several of his men were forced into battle with Blackfoot Indians in
Montana at 3:00 in the morning.  Two Indians were killed.  To escape
from an oncoming large reserve party of Blackfoot Indians, Lewis and his
men immediately fled and didn't stop until 2:00 the next morning.  Along
the way, they killed and ate a buffalo.  Their only food while
continuing to ride horseback fleeing from the Indians for 100 miles in
25 hours.

Throughout the expedition, when meat was plentiful, meat was prepared
each evening so that it was not necessary for the party to make stops
until the following evening supper.  The men thrived.

When game was not available, as when the party was crossing the 60 miles
of snowbound Rockies and meat supplies were exhausted, the men survived
on a concoction of "roots" boiled in a kettle of bear oil.  Apparently
the bear oil concoction enabled them to survive and Lewis gratefully
wrote, '(it is) an agreeable dish.'"

Part 3 to follow....................

Paula H.