Carnivore Diet

Continuous bad weather delayed us at Cape Herschel until June 12, when we started off with a single sled, led by Toolooah accompanied by his family and boy Awanak. We left all our heavy luggage. The remainder of the Innuits of the party were to remain at Camp Herschel until our return, unless any delay should occasion my remaining longer than the breaking up of the summer's ice. In this eventuality, at their own judgment they would return to the mainland where the reindeer are more plentiful. 

On June 15 the last of the hard bread was used and the time was now rapidly approaching when our diet would be a la Innuit until Camp Daly was again reached - some six months hence. My intention was to march to the head of Washington Bay, (which I did on the 17th) thence directly northward across land to Collinson Inlet (before the rapidly disappearing snow was too far gone to render sledging impracticable) then my search would be continued on the salt water ice along the coasts, which lasts a month or six weeks longer. By this means I hoped to reach the mainland of Adelaide Peninsula before the latter ice broke up, and not be coming long distance on our way homeward on the autumn snows. My route across land to Colinson Inlet would, according o the Admiralty charts, take me some wener or twenty-five miles.

On June 23...Arctic aquatic fowl were now getting quite plentiful, and, to vary our monotonous diet of reindeer and seal meat, we secured many. 

 

 Of the sources available (including the formal report of the commander, Lieutenant Patrick Henry Ray), the best description of the people is the account by the anthropologist John Murdoch: “Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,” published in the Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution(Washington, D.C., 1892). 

In addition to agreeing generally with Simpson's dietetic observations of the 1850's, Murdoch amplifies in the 1880's:

“The food of these people consists almost entirely of animal substances ... We saw and heard nothing ... of eating the half-digested contents of the stomach of the reindeer ... As far as our observations go these people eat little, if any more fat than civilized man; and, as a rule, not by itself ... It is usually supposed, and generally stated in the popular accounts of the Eskimos, that it is a physical necessity for them to eat enormous quantities of blubber in order to obtain a sufficient amount of carbon to enable them to maintain their animal heat in the cold climate which they inhabit. A careful comparison, however, of the reports of actual observers shows that an excessive eating of fat is not the rule ...

“We saw these people eat no vegetable substances, though they informed us that the buds of the willow were sometimes eaten [especially in time of famine] ... Food is generally cooked ... Meat of all kinds is generally boiled ... and the broth thus made is drunk ... Fish are also boiled but are often eaten raw ... Meat is sometimes eaten raw frozen ... When living in winter houses they ... have no regular time for meals, but eat whenever hungry and have leisure. The women seem to keep a supply of cooked food on hand for anyone to eat ... They are large eaters, some of them, especially the women, eating all the time ...” Elsewhere Murdoch relates that during winter the Barrow women stirred around very little, did little heavy work, and yet “inclined more to being sparse than corpulent.”

The best summation of the Expedition is in Schwatka's own words, delivered at a dinner in his honor given by the American Geographical Society at Chickering Hall, New York City, on the evening of October 28, 1880. In his Address, he stated: 

"It was the longest sledge journey ever made both in regard to time and distance, having been absent from its base eleven months and four days, and having traversed 2709 geographical or 3124 statute miles if estimated to Marble Island, our nearest point where we returned to civilized food). 

"It was the first sledge journey conducted through the heart of an Arctic winter, and a winter pronounced by the natives to be exceptionally severe as the meteorological table will fully confirm. Not but that quite a number of sledge journeys have been undertaken by white men in the Polar midwinter, but I know of none before this encompassing the whole duration of that unfavorable season; and, in fact, they have been generally very short and under circumstances where comfort commensurate with the exposure could be easily attained at some suitable base."

 "It was the first expedition wherein the white men of a party lived solely upon the same diet, voluntarily assumed, as its native allies. This fact, coupled with those already stated, shows that white men are not only able to live the same as Esquimaux in the Arctic, and with equal comfort, but also to prosecute any projects that their superior intelligence may dictate or their ambition may desire, and under all the circumstances that the natives themselves would similarly venture to undertake for less laudable objects. 

"In its searches the party was the first to make an extended summer's exploration over the ground covered by the unfortunate Franklin Party crews in their deplorable endeavors to reach aid although a glance at the map will show that their base was in a far less favorable position for such an undertaking than that of the greater majority of the numerous searchers who proceeded us. "It established the loss of the records of the Franklin Party beyond all reasonable doubt. As these alone have been the main incentive to the many expeditions since Dr. Rae's in 1854 (who established the loss of the party) this success, although unfortunately of a negative nature, is of no small character, since this fact, coupled with the loss of the party, and the burial of their dead, must necessarily settle the Franklin problem in all its important aspects."

Cantani’s dietary regime involved periods of energy restriction, however the German physiologist Wilhelm Ebstein cites Cantani as an authority for the use of pure fat in diabetic diets. In 1892 Ebstein published his comprehensive review of the literature on diet, lifestyle, and diabetes, Über die Lebensweise der Zuckerkranken, which includes the statement that “up to about 200 grams of fat is well tolerated by the majority of diabetics” [7]. Also in 1892, Ebstein’s book on Corpulence and its Treatment on Physiological Principles, which contained brief summaries of his findings on fat and diabetes, was translated into English [8]. In this book and his subsequent work On the Regimen to be Adopted in Cases of Gout Ebstein discussed experimental evidence on the metabolism of protein and the desirability of limiting both protein and carbohydrate, and increasing fat, in the treatment of metabolic diseases [9].

German Txt (Very hard to read)

https://archive.org/stream/diefettleibigkei00ebst/diefettleibigkei00ebst_djvu.txt

English Translation Scanned PDF:

https://dlcs.io/pdf/wellcome/pdf-item/b21050533/0

Ebstein describes Rabbit Starvation:

Page 37:

Notwithstanding the vastly important part played by nitrogenous food in human dietetics, those substances that contain no nutritive ingredients except albumen, as for instance flesh destitute of fat, are not proper food for man. As flesh satisfies his demand for carbon only when it is consumed four times in excess of the quantity required to yield the nitrogen needed for his nourishment, such a course would in the first place be far from economical, seeing that meat is one of the dearest articles of food. And then we should very soon find it impossible to consume every day the 90 oz. of pure flesh required for this purpose.

The dietetic systems of treatment now in vogue are based on an almost exclusively albuminous diet. In 1850 Chambers had already pronounced in favour of this regimen, his system excluding all fat substances such as fat, oil, butter, milk, cream, as well as sugar. Of starch-flour in the form of potatoes and even of bread he remarked, that they should be looked on with the greatest suspicion. He also insisted on a diminished consumption of liquids. 

We thus perceive that strictly speaking Chambers' cure differs in no respect from that, by which Banting grew lean in the hands of his physician Harvey, and which has received the name of the Banting cure from the patient, who has written an account of his malady and curative process. From it's specially operative factor Kisch has named it the "Anti-Fat Cure".

Cantani has gone still more vigourously to work. He bars not only all fats - fat meat, fat fish, cheese (owing to its sebacic acid), but all farinaceous preparations, all saccharine foods, sweet and aromatic fruits. Only when the patient is unable to continue this diet long enough, either through excessive repugnance to meat, or nausea of the stomach, or muscular debility, he combines it with the Harvey-Banting system, which also no doubt anathematises the fats, but allows a certain quantity of carbohydrates. 

    Hence these cures have this in common that both alike to the very utmost exclude fats, which they regard as the chief source of the accumulation of fat in the body.

    Now I will by no means deny that a series of cures does result from the Harvey-Banting and Cantani methods, that is to say, by these means corpulent persons become thin. But on the other hand it must be allowed that: 

Page 44:

Ebstein strongly supports fat for satiety.

"I would now specially insist that the suitable quantity of alimentary fat must not forsooth remove hunger in such a way as to produce dyspeptic symptoms or injure the digestion; and this I dwell upon because the question has already been more than once placed before me by competent colleagues. It is of course a tacit assumption that the fat like all other human aliments, be of unexceptionable quality. The experiments made on persons suffering from fistula in the stomach, have already shown that fat substances disturb the digestion only when they are consumed too abundantly, and I have myself often enough administered with surprising succcess alimentary fat to dyspeptics of the worst type, while limitng their allowance of carbohydrates. But my own numerous experiences have also convinced me, that in the treatment of corpulency fat agrees perfectly well even with those, who had previously regarded it with nausea. I have even noticed a total disappearance of the dyspeptic affections, which the corpulent had hitherto brought upon themselves by an improper diet. The patients preserve a good appetite, which they must learn to moderate by yielding only the actual feeling of hunger. 

The reason of this alleviation of the feeling of hunger with a proper allowance of fat in the diet is due to the circumstance, that fat checks the decomposition of albumen, and that consequently the craving to make good the waste makes itself felt more slowly and less urgently. Precisely because fewer albuminates have been decomposed, fewer require to be replaced. As by the addition of fat to the diet in the same proportion as the decomposition of albumen is diminished, the quantity of nitrogenous refuse from the assimilated substances is also limined, a smaller amount of drink is needed for its removal. Hence in this way thirst as well as hunger becomes appeased. That fats reduce the craving for food was already known to Hippocrates, who remarks in the section dealing with those that wish to become fat or lean: "the dishes must be succelent, for in this way we are easiest sated." Very interesting to me was a communication from Loew, bearing on the point that the use of fat is also effective in checking the craving for liquids. After the consumption of fat in hot climates he always noticed a diminished demand for water; thirst became decidely less irksome.

This property of fat to produce satiety more rapidly, to diminish the craving for food and abate the feeling of thirst, facilitates to an extraordinary degree the introduction of the modified diet. For to the sacrifices which after all must in any case be required of the corpulent, nothing further need be superadded at least in this direction. On the contrary, the permission to enjoy certain succulent things, always of course in moderation, as for instance salmon, pate de foie gras and such like delicacies, reconciles the corpulent gourmet to his sacrifices. These consist in the exclusion of the carbohydrates. Sugar, sweets of all kinds, potatoes in every form I forbid unconditionally. The quantity of bread is limited at most to from 3 to 3.5 oz a day, and of vegetables I allow asparagus, spinach, the various kinds of cabbage and especially the leguminous, whose value as conveyors of albumen, as Voit rightly observes, is known to few. Of meats I exclude none, and the fat in the flesh I do not wish to be avoided, but on the contrary sought after. I permit bacon fat, fat roast pork and mutton, kidney fat, and when no other fat is at hand I recommend marrow to be added to soups. I allow the sauces as well as the vegetables to be made juicy, as did Hippocrates, only for his sesam-oil I substitute butter. 

In spite of all this it would be little to the point to say that I treat the corpulent with fat, whereas I simply vindicate the full claims to which fat is entitled as an article of food. I do not suppose that the corpulent, with who we are practically concerned, will have to consume anything like the quantity of fat that Voit concedes to the working man, or that is allowed to the rank and file of the German imperial army in time of war, say from 7 to 9 oz. daily. I reduce this daily allowance of fat to from 2 to 3.5 oz on an average. The quantity of course changes with the individual relations, nor is it the same for every day. Under the influence of this diet it becomes possible to do with a less quantity of meat. This again I reduce to fully one half or three-fifths of the quantity required in the Banting system, which varies from 13 to 16 oz. a day.

p331, John Lucas: "Sir, —A propos the annotation appearing under the above heading in The Lancet of June 24th, pp. 1048-9, I would beg permission to observe that almost every medical man in India will be able to endorse the views of Dr. Moore, to which you refer. Medical officers of native regiments notice almost daily in their hospital practice that—to use your writer's words—"insufficient diet will cause scurvy even if fresh vegetable material forms a part of the diet, though more rapidly if it is withheld." Indeed, so far as my humble experience as a regimental surgeon from observations on the same men goes, I am inclined to think that the meat-eating classes of our Sepoys—to wit, the Mahomedans, especially those from the Punjaub—are comparatively seldom seen with the scorbutic taint ; while, on the contrary, the subjects are, in the main, vegetable feeders who are their non-meat-eating comrades, the Hindus (Parboos from the North- West Provinces and Deccan Mahrattas), especially those whose daily food is barely sufficient either in quality or quantity. A sceptic may refuse to accept this view on the ostensible reason that though the food of the meat-eating classes be such, it may, perchance, contain vegetable ingredients as well as meat. To this I would submit the rejoinder that as a matter of fact, quite apart from all theory and hypothesis, the food of these meat-eating classes does not always contain much, or any, vegetables. In the case of the semi-savage hill tribes of Afghanistan and Baluchistan, their food contains large amounts of meat (mutton), and is altogether devoid of vegetables. The singular immunity from scurvy of these races has struck me as a remarkable physiological circumstance, which should make us pause before accepting the vegetable doctrine in relation to scurvy et hoc genus omne."

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