top of page
History List
Buliard questions whether civilization has been positive for the people of the North: The Eskimo's fur clothing is perfect for the climate, and his diet, heavy with fat, was just the thing for a man who was going to hunt on the ice in forty-below-zero weather. In one sense, civilization, by making things easier for the Eskimo, has really set the stage for the Eskimo's destruction.
Inuk
January 1, 1951
An Eskimo heaven also is mentioned--Kowiasokvik--The Place of Happiness. It is something like the Indians' Happy Hunting Ground, a material paradise, overflowing with game, a haven where there is no hunger, no cold, no misery, where the dogs are always fresh and the snow always the right consistency. You get to Kowiasokvik by doing what the shamans say, wearing your amulets, observing the tabus, and following the Eskimo moral code, which is quite different from ours.
Inuk
January 1, 1951
Buliard tests a taboo and coincidence works in the Eskimos' favor: "Well, at any rate," one Eskimo observed, "don't kill a crow. That is certain to bring bad weather."
I killed a crow as soon as I could find one. And did I pick the wrong day! Or the wrong crow! A few hours later an Arctic tornado mowed down every tent in the settlement. The Eskimos smiled knowingly at me, saying nothing, but very much amused and quite superior.
Inuk
January 1, 1951
"Kakertogot taima"..."We are always hungry now."
Of course they were hungry. The Eskimo is a carnivore. His body craves meat--seal, bear, caribou, fish--and the climate and his hard life aren't satisfied by anything else. Half a grapefruit and a couple of pieces of toast are not the breakfast for the Inuk at all, but for another class of people.
Inuk
January 1, 1951
Ikraluk! The name has a cherished sound to the Eskimos, for this fish is their favorite. Fish, of course, is one of the basic foods of the Inuit. They eat it any old way--raw, frozen, dried, or even cooked. It is fed to the dogs, in certain camps, almost as their only food, meat being reserved for humans.
Inuk - Our Daily Bread - Arctic Style
January 1, 1951
The Arctic is a dietician's nightmare, and anyone conscious of vitamins or a balanced diet will make himself miserable. Eskimos are almost exclusively carnivorous--at least, they were until very recently. Now they have developed a taste for the white man's flour, sugar, and other soft foods. Their classical food is meat, and they still live on it almost altogether.
Inuk
January 1, 1951
Charles Darwin: I had now been several days without tasting anything besides meat: I did not at all dislike this new regimen; but I felt as if it would only have agreed with me with hard exercise. I have heard that patients in England, when desired to confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet, even with the hope of life before their eyes, have hardly been able to endure it. Yet the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, touches nothing but beef.
Journal of Researches into the Natural History & Geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of H.M.S. Beagle
September 17, 1832
A general officer of 57-years of age came under Dr Rollo's care, in the beginning of January 1797. Nearly the same plan of treatment, particularly with respect to the diet of animal food, was here directed, as in the case of Captain Meredith. In a very short time, a remarkable change for the better was produced.
Account of Two Cases of the Diabetes Mellitus - Case 2
January 1, 1797
Dr. Rollo's full case study of Captain Meredith changed the medical world as he showed that an exclusive meat diet devoid of vegetable matter and sugary foods could reverse diabetes. When Meredith's disease came back over the course of treatment, "an entire abstinence from vegetable matter was directed" again to lasting results that allowed Meredith to get back to work.
Account of Two Cases of Diabetes Mellitus, with Remarks - Case 1 - Captain Meredith
October 16, 1796
Dr. Newburgh experiments with a high fat diet despite the fears of ketoacidosis. "we studied the effect of a high fat, low protein, low carbohydrate diet in the treatment of diabetes. Our experience with this type of diet in the management of seventy-three diabetics has convinced us that it is capable of fulfilling these four specifications."
Archives of Internal Medicine - The Use of a High Fat Diet in the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus - First Paper
December 1, 1920
Leith M.D. uses a ketogenic diet with a restriction of 50 grams of carbs, fashioned after the Pennington Diet, with 48 obese subjects and found that twenty-eight were able to follow the diet and succeed in losing weight. The diet prevented hunger, which was the most important discovery.
The Canadian Medical Association - Experiences with the Pennington Diet in Management of Obesity
June 24, 1961
Dr Rollo summarizes the 48 cases of diabetes he's aware of and how the disease was hitherto fatal, unless the animal diet is used to cure(T2D) or delay(T1D) the disease. "Doctor Beddoes has lately mentioned a case of which has been cured by the diet alone."
Cases of the Diabetes Mellitus - Appendix
December 5, 1798
It must, we think, be admitted that all practical observations tend to prove that animal food is digested more rapidly than vegetable food, and it therefore seems highly probable that meat can replace the waste of the nitrogenous tissues more rapidly than meal of any kind, and it is probably true that there is a more active change of tissue in meat eaters than in vegetable feeders, and that the former require more frequent supplies of food.
Food in Health and Disease - Carbohydrates in Nutrition
January 1, 1896
The occurrence of this "amyloid substance" in the liver, even when a purely animal diet has been taken, he accounts for by the supposition that the liver is the organ in which the splitting-up of the albuminates into urea and a non-nitrogenous substance occurs, and that the latter is metamorphosed by the liver into "glycogen."
Food In Health and Disease - Functions of the Carbohydrates
January 1, 1896
Corpulence seems here to have been the harbinger of the scurvy. The only one he ever saw affected with the scurvy was a young man remarkably corpulent. From the whole of his observations it appears clearly that obesity predisposed his patients to scurvy.
Observations on the Nature and Cure of Calculus, Sea Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and Fever
January 1, 1793
Dr Beddoes: Considering fresh meat, or the muscular part of animals, chemically, I see no reason why it should not be efficacious in preventing or curing the scurvy. In winter they[Ostiack Tartars of the Oby] ravenously devour their frozen fish raw, esteeming them a preservative against the 'scurvy.'
Observations On The Nature And Cure Of Calculus, Sea Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, And Fever: Together With Conjectures Upon Several Other Subjects Of Physiology And Pathology
January 1, 1793
There are other facts which seem to show that too much is attributed by Dr. Trotter to fresh vegetables. Linnæus informs us, that the Laplanders are unacquainted with the scurvy ; they feed all the winter on the fresh flesh of the reindeer.
Observations On The Nature And Cure Of Calculus, Sea Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, And Fever: Together With Conjectures Upon Several Other Subjects Of Physiology And Pathology - 1793
January 1, 1772
Dr Rollo summarizes the cases of diabetes. He finds a difference between a chronic form(likely Type 2) and an acute form(likely Type 1), and notes the powerful effect of an animal-based diet on both. He also talks about the difficulty of convincing patients to stick with the diet, and how they complain of wanting a pill or drug to take instead. He concludes with vegetables that do not increase the sugar in the urine, such as broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, and lettuce, setting the grounds for ketogenic diets.
Of the appropriate Treatment of the Diabetes Mellitus.
December 3, 1798
Dr Rollo discusses all of the communications he has received about the usage of an animal diet for diabetes. Doctors de la Rive, Marshall, Cleghorn, Gerard, Storer, Currie, Aldridge, Jameson, Pearson, Shirref, Houston, Cruikshank, Willan, and Thomas provide valuable evidence on the carnivore diet in 1798.
Cases of the Diabetes Mellitus - Some Remarks on These Communications.
December 2, 1798
Mr. Leigh Thomas, surgeon: He commenced eating animal food, his common beverage was water and beef tea. After pursuing this plan for days, the urine had entirely lost the sweet taste, and was greatly reduced in quantity. I consider it a favourable one for a trial of the ingenious mode of treatment you have pointed out for the cure of this disease.
Cases of the Diabetes Mellitus
August 28, 1797
A total change of diet seemed the only means of preserving this worthy young man from almost immediate dissolution. He commenced the plan without hesitation, abstaining wholly from bread, or other vegetable substances, and from all fermented liquors. For breakfast he took milk, with yolk of egg; for dinner, occasionally fish, but, in general, beef or mutton which had been long kept, sometimes a little ham; for supper, a poached egg, or calve's foot jelly, prepared without wine or acid.
Cases of the Diabetes Mellitus
August 6, 1798
Yeo describes the scientific knowledge concerning the metabolism of fat and protein, alluding to rabbit starvation where only protein is eaten. "The supporting influence of fat under great muscular fatigue is strongly maintained by Ebstein and it is stated that the German Emperor, in the war of 1870, recognised this fact by requiring that each soldier should have served out to him daily 250 grammes of fat bacon!"
Food in Health and Disease
January 1, 1870
The [56-year old diabetic] patient has continued to live almost entirely on animal food. It was thought advisable to continue the animal food, as it agreed very well with the patient, and as the urine was less in quantity than when vegetable food was taken.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
July 1, 1798
A 30 year old woman: "several years she has indulged in fruit, pickles, and sweetmeats." She met Dr Rollo and was put upon his all-meat diet, but when she introduced carbohydrates, the diabetes came back. "Since the use of the bread, the disease has been reproduced. Since the first, has been strictly on animal diet; the several symptoms are removed, and she appears altogether better than I have yet seen her."
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
March 20, 1797
Mr. Shirref tells the detailed case study of a young woman with diabetes who abused sweetmeats and fruit and got better on an all-meat diet by visiting Dr. Rollo. "I directed a diet, consisting chiefly of animal substances"
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
February 23, 1798
Robert Nixon's case of diabetes is treated by Dr Jameson who used Rollo's all meat diet to effect a cure: He readily entered into the plan of cure suggested there; which the Patient was desired to adhere to rigidly as far as concerned the regimen; being strictly forbidden to eat any vegetable food.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus: with the results of the trials of certain acids
March 1, 1798
Doctor Aldridge was advised to give up all visits, and pass the winter entirely within his house, to abstain from vegetables, sweet and home made wines, to which he had been, particularly partial, and all redundance of sugar, of which he was fond, and to pursue the plan of medicine stated in his letter to you. I do not think, at his age, the cure could have been more complete.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus: with the results of the trials of certain acids
October 18, 1797
These cases show the great danger of inflammation after the cure of Diabetes by animal food; a danger which increases in proportion to the preceding debility of the Patient, and against which it is necessary to be particularly on our guard.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus: with the results of the trials of certain acids
July 6, 1798
Dr Cleghorn mentions the conclusions of some of his diabetic cases, saying one is stronger, while the other died from pneumonia and was unable to pursue the animal diet. He has also told many doctors in Western Scotland who have been using the meat diet to cure diabetes.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus: with the results of the trials of certain acids
June 12, 1798
Three cases of diabetes among women are described by Dr Gerard: "Together with animal food, laxatives, and emetics, she got hepatised ammonia; and for many weeks she has been so well that she is about to be dismissed cured."
Cases of the diabetes mellitus: with the results of the trials of certain acids
March 8, 1798
He was restricted to animal food. His skin, formerly arid, became soft and moist; in proportion to the abatement of his appetite and thirst, he gained flesh and strength; and his urine, acquiring daily more and more of the natural appearance.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
June 12, 1798
Elizabeth Francis has her diabetes treated with the exclusive meat diet by Dr Gerard - "She still keeps to the plan of eating animal food, and avoiding all vegetable matter, but lives a good deal upon milk; and when I called upon her yesterday, she said she had certainly gained strength lately."
Cases of the diabetes mellitus: with the results of the trials of certain acids
May 15, 1798
She was put upon the animal diet, and in the course of eight or ten days was better, to her feeling. However, several months later she died Dec 13th because "she was continually deviating from the plan, in eating different vegetable matters, and particularly sweets"
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
May 15, 1798
The continuation of the John Walker Diabetes Case: an entire diet of animal food to be adopted, confining of the following articles; three eggs for breakfast, four oz of cheese for supper, two lbs of meat for dinner, with three lbs of beef-tea in the day.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
June 12, 1797
At this time Dr. Currie had just received a publication from Dr. Rollo, Surgeon General to the Royal Artillery, at Woolwich, of a case of Diabetes that he had treated with success; he had not read it; but he understood that much was attributed to animal diet. On this authority our patient, John Clarke, was ordered to live chiefly on flesh and milk.
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
February 9, 1797
A nameless physician takes Rollo's advice to use the meat diet and cuts out all vegetable foods and sugar. He changes the rancid fats and putrescent flesh regiment to one of "fresh mutton, animal gluten, mucilage."
Cases of the diabetes mellitus : with the results of the trials of certain acids
March 19, 1797
bottom of page