"Popular" Science, on Medium; "Please Do Not Try to Survive on an All-Meat Diet"

[Karim_Wassef]

true, but rabbit starvation is a real thing.

Protein poisoning

Basically… fat fat fat fat fat and the best fat is animal fat

[Bellyman]

Isn’t “Popular Science” a bit of an oxymoron? Is it popular? And is it really science?

I’ll admit I didn’t even know they still existed. But I kinda remember they were always trying to get us to build solar water heaters out of old radiators and garden hoses and cars with lawnmower engines to get us 100mpg. (This is like 40 years ago…)

[MarkGossage]

Why does everyone assume that ancient man ate huge beasts? I’m fairly sure that rabbits, goats, sheep and many birds were around so we didn’t eat sabre toothed tigers but would have eaten animals that were easier to catch.

[anon2571578]

It was a combo. There is evidence early humans took down mammoths, but I don’t doubt at all that we also caught easier animals, too. It’s all risk vs payoff. A mammoth will feed the tribe for a long time.

[Dread1840]

Why wouldn’t they? Inuit bothered with going after wales in the ocean. At least the mammoth was a land beast. Hell, I’d love me some elephant right about now.

[MarkGossage]

I’m sure that they did but it would be a hell of an effort especially if a lot of the meat may have gone to waste. It’s just every time people talk about what ancient man used to eat they go on about huge beasts rather than the smaller stuff likes birds, rabbit, goats, wild pigs etc which probably made up a larger part of their diet.

[Dread1840]

It takes a village, and I’m sure there were no goats in the ice age.

[anon2571578]

a lot of the meat may have gone to waste

What makes you think a lot went to waste?

[MarkGossage]

Because a mammoth is pretty huge so to kill one and eat it all fairly quickly would have been difficult. Without a fridge or somewhere cool to keep the meat it would have spoiled thus making the effort to hunt and kill it a waste of energy. Salt preservation could be an option but it’s more likely that people killed and ate smaller animals or even ate carrion.

[Dread1840]

Freezing temps and rotten meat is a health food.

[Karim_Wassef]

salt and ice … nothing goes to waste.

If no reasonable options are available, build your own body fat so you can survive. Only thing needed is water and salt.

[Dread1840]

Not to mention, the pH of human stomach acid is right along with scavengers. Our distant apelike ancestor probably got their taste for meat by eating the rotten leavings of predators.

[240lbfatloss]

Drying meat was also one of the main ways to preserve it. Once dried, you pounded it to powder and added melted fat to it to make pemmican.

Here’s a Bison Jump.It’s fairly easy to direct animals over a cliff or stampede them into a river. All you need is a plan and fire. This one is pretty big, many more were much smaller.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

[Robert_Johnson]

I tossed in a few more likes just for @juice, as I know he’s always running out of them. There @juice, you can have my spares!

[Rclause]

I suppose it is possible that early man would hunt large prey when in desperate hunger and willing to take risk. It is also possible they would be opportunistic and watch a large herd for a weaker injured member. I mean there were thousands of buffalo in some herds and just one eaten nose to tale would have a huge supply of meat.

Not based on history but just thinking out loud about the possibilities.

[Robert_Johnson]

Brings to mind the fables Fische carb orator ( iphone will not let me spell it right!)

There was also something about a formula that allows the mixing of water in gasoline to thin it out. Pretty much my entire family were automotive mechanics. So I heard tons of stuff, and heard my Dad debunk all of it.

Turns out you could get gasoline to mix with water, i think the gasoline was being emulsified, and it worked. But you got much less power out of it, and it would rust the engine inside out

[Dipper_Actual]

Don’t forget the original adventurer Vilhjalmur Stefansson:

Rare footage of Vilhjalmur Stefansson the Arctic explorer and early carnivore...

Wrote the book then walked the walk in a metabolic ward.

[Dread1840]

.

Study found here (PDF download): http://www.jbc.org/content/87/3/651.full.pdf

[atomicspacebunny]

If you listen to the whole Rhonda Patrick/Joe Rogan back and forth about carnivore the best she came up with against it was (words to the effect): ‘we don’t know what you might be missing or doing to your cells 7 years out.’

She convinced me of one thing: Go back to my mega-vitamins even though I hadn’t used them in 6 months of Carnivore Diet – in an abundance of caution and because they are likely good for me anyway.

Some thoughts:

The 7 years out thing (damage to chromosomes) is highly unlikely, phytonutrients are not essential to keep you alive but bone broth (glutathione) could be advantageous against advanced glycation end products[1] in cooked meat?

Then there are eggs which are very nutrient dense?

The Inuit got most of their vitamin C from eating raw adrenals of animals and marine plants like seaweed and berries but the body probably needs less vitamin C without carbohydrates and that might be true for all micronutrients when going carnivore.

Overeating raw meats and fat is not a good thing either just like over eating too many carbs is not a good thing?

*footnotes:

[1] Advanced Glycation End Products in Foods and a Practical Guide to Their Reduction in the Diet

[2] “…Similarly, the glutathione stores available in meat, dairy, and eggs, are only significant when the foods are consumed raw. …” …More

[Herb_Martin]

Thank you for the excellent response.

I wasn’t overly worried about the unknown future consequences, but it really was the only thing negative that she said in that interview that was even remotely offered with facts.