Vilhjalmur Stefansson: The Zero Carb (Inuit/Eskimo) Diet

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian ethnologist and explorer. He spent a lot of time living with the Eskimos, researching their diet and lifestyle. In this article i'll elaborate on the Eskimos diet based on the accounts of Vilhjalmur Stefansson and modern research (as always, references will be provided in the buttom of the article). The juicy part of the article is provided in section II, which is different quotes taken from 'Not By Bread Alone' a brilliant book and account of the Inuit lifestyle by Vilhjalmur Stefansson.

As we know, there's essential fatty acids and essentiel amino acids. It's impossible to live without them in the long run. However, it's a historical and scientific fact that you can live without carbohydrates: there's NO such thing as essentiel carbohydrates. The original Eskimo/Inuit-diet consisted almost entirely of fat and protein. Indeed, they did eat carbohydrate in periods, but it played a minor role within their overall dietary habits. In fact, what the Inuits ate as dessert had little to do with the high-glycemic Westernised desserts such as cake, pancakes, candy, soda and other crappy foods. Here's a section from Vilhjalmur Stefansson's 'Not By Bread Alone': "(...) The other long bones of fore and hind legs are cleaned of all meat and are saved up to crack for the raw marrow, which may be used with a meal, or, in small quantity, eaten raw between meals, somewhat as we eat candy". Another traditional Inuit dessert is 'Akutaq'. It is the Inuit's answer to modern icecream. It was traditionally made with whipped fat mixed with berries like cranberries, salmonberries, crowberries, cloudberries, and blueberries, fish, tundra greens, or roots with animal oil or fat. Some variations also includes whitefish, Reindeer tallow, moose tallow, walrus tallow, caribou tallow, or seal oil (see the picture below)

The Inuit diet consisted primarily of whatever the animal carcass provided: meat, bone broth, organs, brain, eyes, the tail, etc. They generally ate everything on the animal. They ate meat from a huge variety of animals: seal, moose, birds (ravens, seaguls and owls), eggs, bears (grizzly bears and polar bears), musk ox, mountain sheeps, walrus, caribou, fish, whale, etc. Overall, the Inuits consumed about 60% of their calories from fat, 20-25% from protein and 10-15% from carbohydrate. The carbohydrates generally came in form of glycogen stored in the raw meat they ate. In relation to this, research has shown, that the Inuit diet is not a ketogenic diet despite their high intake of fat and protein compared to their intake of carbohydrate (1), (2), (3) (some researchers believe that the Inuits were on a flexible ketogenic diet, meaning that they were bouncing in and out of ketosis)

As mentioned above, the carbohydrates generally came in form of glycogen from the raw meat they ate. Another important aspect is the Inuit practice of preserving whole animal carcasses under intact whole skin with a thick layer of blubber, meaning some proteins fermented into carbohydrates (4) - imagine the Inuit's gut flora, it must've been a sight of wonders. You might wonder, how did the Inuits get a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals? Research has shown on multiple occasions, that the Inuits didn't lack any vitamins or minerals. To give a few examples: Vitamin C is obtained through sources such as caribou liver, kelp, whale skin, and seal/moose brain. Vitamic C is generally destroyed by the cooking process, but since the Inuits ate these sources raw or frozen, the vitamin C was preserved. Vitamin A and D are present in the oils and livers of cold-water fish and mammals. Minerals such as magnesium, zink, copper, potassium, etc. are all covered in organ meats, especially the brain and the liver.

Section II:

Interesting points from 'Not By Bread Alone' by Vilhjalmur Stefansson:

1) Quote: "No Eskimo ever had decayed teeth until he got the white man's diet. Eskimos have filthy mouths, too. Not much evidence there that keeping the mouth clean has anything to do with lack of cavities" This is a brilliant example by Stefansson, as to how the modern Western diet is destroying our teeth. Another fantastic book on this subject is 'Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects' by Weston Price. He analyzes a great deal of 'primitive' cultures and he doesn't find any problems with their teeth. As soon as homo-sapiens is exposed to the modern Westernised diet, tooth decay becomes a huge problem.

2) Quote: "(...) for he believes that as agriculture raises the quantity it lowers the quality of food, the quality being judged by its healthfulness to men who have been living for 2,000,000 years on something else" As i've said before, The Agricultural Revolution is one of the most important milestones in human history, but now it's time for a re-orientation of our lifestyle and dietary habits.

3) Quote: "I could be healthy on a diet of fish and water. The longer I followed it the better I liked it, which established in my mind one of the first principles of dietetics: You never become tired of your food if you have only one thing to eat" (...) "To the best of my estimate, then, I lived in the Arctic for more than five years exclusively on meat and water" - A huge variety of tests performed on Stefansson showed, that his body was perfectly healthy and optimal, whilst consuming nothing but meat and water. The same happened to his fellow European travellers, who also ate a carnivore diet. He even accounts what happened to his fellow travellers when they returned to a standard Western diet: "(...) they get indigestion and headache, feel miserable, and within a week, in nine cases out of ten of those who have been on meat six months or over, they are willing to go back to meat again"

4) Quote: "In the digestive process as it is on a mixed diet, and no doubt on a vegetarian regimen, gases are generated in considerable amount, particularly with those whose elimination is slow. These gases, and the feces, have an unpleasant odor. We noticed in the Arctic, and this was later confirmed at Bellevue, that when we had been for several days on meat alone all trouble with gas ceased and the feces became practically odorless" - high quality meat has never, ever, been bad for your digestive system, nor will it ever be. (Note= high quality meat)

5) The last quote is not to be commented on. Think of it as you want to: "No frying was ever practiced before Europeans came - apparently frying is a rare form of cooking among primitive people everywhere. Roasting was occasional, and usually by Eskimos who lived in forested districts. Even in the woods, boiling is the normal method, while on sea coasts or at sea it is practically the only form"

References: (1) http://www.jbc.org/content/80/2/461

(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1266943/

(3) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/diet-of-canadian-indians-and-eskimos/851C24CF59A1B9DBF29C0CC7E4811523

(4) https://books.google.dk/books?id=ospqAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y