The number of words edited in this article is 3665, and the estimated reading time is 10 minute.
I believe in 1906, Harvard anthropologist Vihjalmur Stefansson especially wants to know this answer!
In order to find out the eating habits of Inuit people, he lived with them for nearly 10 years and always insisted on a pure meat diet.
He found himself without any physical discomfort or health problems. However, many traditional nutritionists at that time still did not believe it.
In order to prove that man can get enough nutrition from animals, he once again devoted himself to science and truth.
From 65438 to 0928, he and his colleague Anderson started a sensational "diet experiment" under the strict control of Bellevue Hospital and supervision team in new york.
The two of them, like Inuit, only eat animal food for one year, mainly meat and animal fat and viscera.
At that time, many experts predicted that a diet without fresh fruits and vegetables would definitely lack vitamin C and suffer from scurvy.
However, after the results came out, the experts were speechless.
You can look at the results:
They are mentally sharp and physically active, and have not shown any specific adverse physical changes.
They lose weight and keep their blood pressure unchanged; The other systolic blood pressure decreased by 20 mm, and the diastolic blood pressure remained uniform.
They have no intestinal problems. Diarrhea only occurs when the proportion of protein calories in their diet exceeds 40%.
They don't have the problem of vitamin deficiency.
Urine examination, blood nitrogen content and renal function examination found no evidence of renal damage.
Besides eating meat, Stephenson and his comrade-in-arms Anderson also ate some organ meat (liver, brain and kidney) and some primitive bone marrow.
These raw or lightly cooked animal foods contain a small amount of vitamin C. You may ask, is such a small amount of vitamin C enough for the body?
Next, let's look at the relationship between vitamin C and scurvy.
As we all know, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is very important and the most popular among vitamins.
Because many body functions are related to it, such as iron absorption, immune system, wound healing and maintenance of cartilage, bones and teeth.
The synthesis of dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine and carnitine also requires vitamin C, which is necessary for the production of energy in the body.
It is also an antioxidant, which can prevent free radicals, toxic chemicals, cigarette smoke and other pollutants from harming the human body.
At the same time, vitamin C is also the main substance of collagen synthesis.
When there is not enough vitamin C as a catalyst, the human body can't convert proline and lysine into hydroxyproline and hydroxyproline, and collagen will become weak.
Various connective tissues of the body composed of collagen will also weaken, and then blood vessels will weaken, which will be very easy to rupture.
You will eventually get scurvy.
Symptoms such as weakness, anemia, weakness, muscle pain, loose teeth, bleeding gums, skin discoloration and poor wound healing may occur.
The main sources of vitamin C are vegetables and fruits, so many people think it is necessary to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits.
If you don't eat vegetables and fruits, you will inevitably get scurvy.
In fact, different people have different needs for vitamin C, and a high-carbon water diet is more likely to lead to vitamin C deficiency.
Low-carbon water diet, even zero-carbon pure meat diet, is not easy to lead to vitamin C deficiency.
Inuit, Chukchi, Ewenki and Masai mainly eat animal food. They have a low risk of heart disease and diabetes, and they don't get scurvy.
The intake of carbohydrates is very low, and few vitamins are needed.
When the carbohydrate content in the diet is very low, they need much less vitamin C than those in the high-carbon water diet.
Because vitamin C will not compete with glucose after being absorbed into the body, we have also introduced that there is a "competitive relationship" between glucose and vitamin C.
Glucose and vitamin C are very similar in chemical composition, and enter cells through the same route "Glut- 1 receptor (insulin activation)".
Glut- 1 receptor prefers glucose to vitamin C, so once there is a chance of "competition", it will choose sugar instead of vitamin C.
When you have a lot of glucose in your body, insulin will be secreted, allowing more sugar to enter cells, and then vitamin C will be less.
This will lead to decreased immunity. In order to combat this state, you need more vitamin C..
In 2005, a study found that too much sugar or glucose in the body would inhibit the absorption of vitamin C.
John Cunningham, a nutritionist in Massachusetts, also said that glucose can damage the kidney's reabsorption of vitamin C.
The higher the blood sugar, the more vitamin C is lost in urine.
However, when you reduce the intake of high-carbon water, switch to a low-carbon water diet, or eat almost no carbohydrates like the Inuit, you will naturally need less vitamin C.
And the less carbohydrates, the higher the efficiency of the body to deal with vitamin C.
→ less hydroxylation, less vitamin C needed.
Meat is rich in hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine, which can be absorbed from the intestine and used by the human body, so it needs less hydroxylation and vitamin C.
→ Meat is rich in collagen.
Vitamin C is necessary to make collagen. Meat, especially red meat, contains a lot of collagen.
When you eat more meat, you need less vitamin C.
The synthesis of carnitine requires less vitamin C.
Vitamin C needs to synthesize not only collagen, but also carnitine. Some symptoms of scurvy, such as fatigue, may come from carnitine deficiency.
Unlike collagen, a large amount of carnitine can pass through the digestive system.
Therefore, eating meat can save vitamin C used to synthesize carnitine, and then provide more vitamin C for collagen.
Some studies have also found that guinea pigs lacking vitamin C live longer after taking carnitine.
→ fresh meat also contains some vitamin C.
Vitamin C is famous because of the story of sailors suffering from scurvy.
In fact, most sailors suffering from scurvy eat unfermented white flour (processed food bread), and occasionally add a little salted pork (dried meat) without vitamin C.
It is easy to get scurvy, because high carbohydrates increase the demand for vitamin C, and there is almost no vitamin C in dried meat.
Vitamin c will be lost over time, and it will also be lost in large quantities after cooking.
Therefore, when making meat products, try to choose slow cooking or low temperature, or add some lemon or vinegar to reduce the loss of vitamin C.
On the other hand, the freshness of meat also determines the content of vitamin C.
Dried meat (beef jerky, etc.) and other meats. ) and processed meat (that is, hot dogs, sausages and ham) contain little vitamin C.
Fresh meat, or raw meat, contains some vitamin C. Although it can't be found in many databases, it is actually there.
→ The content of vitamin C in animal viscera is high.
The human body cannot synthesize vitamin C by itself, so it is very important to get vitamin C from food. The highest content of vitamin C in meat is animal liver.
Unlike humans, many mammals retain the ability to make vitamin C internally, and they have some special enzymes in their bodies.
Therefore, we humans can get vitamin C by eating animal livers.
Dr. Ken Berry said that people who eat pure meat can get the vitamin C they need by eating liver, especially pig liver, followed by cow liver and chicken liver.
Karen Federick, a foreign expert, has a master's thesis on vitamin C. She said that only 10 mg is needed every day to fight scurvy.
He found that100g of vitamin C content in Inuit women's food:
Raw reindeer liver provides nearly 24 mg, seal brain provides nearly 15 mg, and kelp provides more than 28 mg. The content of vitamin C in whale skin is high.
Therefore, their diet can easily meet the requirements of minimum vitamin C.
Of course, there is not a lot of data research to prove that a pure meat diet is absolutely safe. This kind of diet itself has a high threshold and needs a certain nutritional foundation, which may not be suitable for everyone.
But abroad, many modern people are pure meat, and there are thousands of people on social media such as facebook.
They live in a modern city like us ordinary people. The difference is that they only eat meat. They have been dieting like this for more than ten years, and no one has ever had scurvy.
There are still many ethnic groups, for environmental reasons, who can only eat meat without scurvy, such as Inuit, Chukchi, Masai and Ewenki.
The reason is simple, because they only eat meat and fat, and seldom eat carbohydrates such as staple food and sugar.
Unlike those sailors who get scurvy, sailors mainly eat carbohydrates, not fresh meat.
Strict low-carbon water diet, no sugar competition, less vitamin C, strong collagen and no excessive oxidative stress (pure meat diet can up-regulate antioxidant-glutathione, which can enhance the antioxidant capacity of human body).
Theoretically, if you eat like this, you won't get scurvy.
Moreover, compared with fruits and vegetables, meat has higher bioavailability, no anti-nutrients, and rich nutrients can be absorbed more thoroughly by the human body.
However, friends who are pure meat need to pay attention to the choice of meat.
It is recommended to eat more meat from ruminants, such as beef and mutton, because cows are different from pigs and chickens.
They have different digestive systems. When properly raised with cereals, the content of omega -6 in chicken and pork is higher, while the content in beef is lower.
Both pure meat and low-carbon ketogenic partners can eat more beef to reduce the inflammatory reaction caused by omega -6.
Of course, if economic conditions do not allow, cheaper pork and poultry meat are also good sources of protein and fat.