THE FAT OF THE LAND by Vilhjalmur Stefansson Etdarged Edition of Not by Bread With Comment by Fredrick J. Stare, M.D., and Paul Dudley White, M.D. ffew York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY I960 THE FAT © 1956 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF THE LAND An enlarged edition of UDT BY BREAD ALONE, copyright. 1946. by The Maonillan Company All rights reserved—no part of this book may be re- produced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper. Third Printing 1961 miNTED IN THE UNITED STATF.1 OF AMFKICA © 1956 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Contents Comment: By Fredrick J. Stare, M.D. .... IX By Paul Dudley White, M.D. xiii An enlarged edition of I40T BY BREAD ALONE, copyright, 1946. by The Maonillan Company By the Author ....... xv Introductions: The Physiological Side, by Eugene F. Du Bois, M.D. xxxv The Anthropological Side, by Earnest A. Hooton, Ph.D., ScD. xli i. Preliminaries and Speculation ........ i All rights reserved—no part of this book may be re- 8. The Home Life of Stone-Age Man ...... 15 produced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brie] passages in connection with a review 3. The Field Experience .......... 40 written for inclusion in magazine or newspaper. 4. The Laboratory Check .......... 60 Third Printing. 1961 5. And Visit Your Dentist Twice a Year ...... 90 6. Living on the Fat of the Land . .112 7. The Blackleg in Shakespeare's Time ...... 143 8. The Blackleg in Our Time ........ 162 9. The Nature and Early History of Pemmican . 178 10. The First Pemmican War ......... 804 11. The Romance of Pemmican ........ 2*5 12. Pemmican in Transition ......... 261 13. The Second Pemmican War ........ 274 Postscript ............... 3>4 Bibliography .............. 3*7 Index ................ 33* PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATE* OF AMERICA TO OLIVE RATHBUN WILCOX Collaborator on fourteen previous books and on this one Comment BY FREDRICK J. STARE, M.D. Professor of Nutrition and Chairman, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. Botton NE day last January the telephone rang. When I an- O swered it, Paul White said: "Stefansson is in town. Could you arrange for someone to stop by his hotel room and draw a blood specimen? You know he has been eating largely meat for most of his life, and it would be interesting to know what his cholesterol and lipoproteins run. I've already asked his permission for a blood specimen, and he has no objection.** Not only had he no objection, but he came over to oar laboratory the next day to volunteer a second specimen so that we might have duplicate samples. And that was my in- troduction to Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Since then I have seen him and his charming wife, Evelyn, a number of times; our correspondence has been frequent, and I am always amazed at his intellectual vigor and his breadth of knowledge. Purely by coincidence the School of Public Health was holding a seminar on the afternoon Stefansson came over to volunteer a second blood specimen. Two of its staff were re- porting on some field observations of outbreaks of dysentery in the arctic, reports which, of course, we were delighted to invite Stefansson to hear. In the discussion that followed, his keen mind, sharp wit, and above all his anthropologic ap- proach to the study of biologic problems were most evident. Those fortunate enough to have read the first edition of Not by Bread Alone are aware of its contributions to nutri- tion. It emphasizes the great capacity of the human organism to adapt to wide changes in food intake and to maintain good health. Above all it deals with the anthropologic approach to x Comment by Fredrick J. Stare Comment by Fredrick J. Stare xi a biologic problem rather than with the epidemiologic, clini- is reading about steaks, pemmican, K rations, or biltong, is cal, or laboratory avenues of which we hear more these days. the importance of meat, lean and fat, in the diet. While The anthropologic approach to nutrition studies helps con- Stefansson's early interests result from his personal expe- firm two points—one, that good health is realizable by means riences in the arctic, he has learned much from other travel, of a variety of dietary patterns; two—and this point is of par- extensive reading, correspondence, and discussions. ticular significance for nutrition eduction—different peoples evolve their own evaluations or standards as to proper and Stefansson has probably consumed more meat than any improper dietary patterns. other person today. When I gave him dinner at the Harvard Stefansson spent many years living with the Eskimos in the Club, Boston, it was roast beef with an extra serving of beef days before the white man's habits had pervaded these people. fat; at our home it was steak, with extra fat. Nothing else He was not a trader, not a missionary, but an observer who except Martinis and cheese. Some of the fat is consumed first. took copious notes, most of which are in his priceless collec- This sounds a little like the Du Pont-Ho/iday-Pennington tion of arctic lore in the Stefansson collection at the Dart* diet one read so much about a few years ago. In fact, that diet mouth College Library. was the Stefansson regimen dressed up with a little "bedside The study of cultural factors in nutrition has emerged only manner" which is a half-hour morning walk and "absolutely recently as a distinct focus of research, marked by the forma- no alcohol." tion of the Committee on Food Habits of the National Re- It is of interest to consider Stefansson's high intake of ani- search Council in 1941. Wellin, writing in Nutrition Reviews mal fat in connection with the current interest in athero- a year ago, mentions that the concept of culture as developed sclerosis. Has it been good or bad for him? Would it be good in anthropology refers to those aspects of human existence or bad for you? transmitted through language and group life: "In any given Life expectancy at the time of Stefansson's birth was many society, culture is the design for living developed by the yean less than it is today, but he is seven years past what it group, a set of 'regulations' governing the conduct of mem- is today. But—and in my opinion an important "but"—Stef bers. For the individual, culture acts as a screen of values and has never been obese; he has always been active physically, perceptions through which the person views food, his own and he doesn't overeat. body and his health, and the world." Should you start eating more meat, and particularly more Stefansson began his anthropologic studies of the Eskimos animal fat? That depends on what you like to eat, how much a half-century ago, and thus was one of the first to use this you want to spend for food, and how carefully you watch your discipline in human biology. It was his observation of the weight. Of course, if we all began eating more meat, there good health of the Eskimos, particularly their good teeth, soon wouldn't be enough, particularly of the "choice" cuts. that interested him in relation to their "lean and fat" diet But the tenderizers do a good job of turning a chuck or top of meat and that led him in later years, with his friend An- of the round into a first-class dish. dersen, to carry out under scientific scrutiny their year-long I once asked Stef if the Eskimos used any tenderizing proce- meat diet described in this book. dure for the tougher cuts of meat, and he reminded me that The dominant theme of Not by Bread Alone, whether one the answer was in his Not by Bread Alone—"even indexed J xii Comment by Fredrick J. Stare under chewingl" The answer is that they don't; but neither do they do much chewing. "The uncivilized Eskimo has never had practice in herbivorous mastication and his mother has never told him to chew for the good of his health. So he gives Comment the piece a bite or two, rolls it around his mouth once or twice, and swallows." BY PAUL DUDLEY WHITE, M.D. But Stef is quite convinced that the tougher cuts of meat have the best flavor, and at home Evelyn uses tenderizers gen- is a pleasure to write a comment for this new edition of erously. r/ilhjalmur Stefansson's book, originally entitled Not by One of the most interesting developments of modern nutri- Bread Alone. In view of his interest in a high fat diet he has tion has been the emergence of a number of studies emphasiz- asked me to summarize briefly my own experiences and ing the great ability of experimental animals, including man, thoughts on the subject of life and heart disease with partic- to adapt to wide variations in diet. We all need protein, carbo- ular reference to the causes of high blood pressure and of hydrate, fat, various vitamins and minerals, and water. But coronary atherosclerosis, which is the basis, when of high we can get these from a great variety of foods; and Stefansson degree, for the clinical condition of angina pectoris and coro- tells in this book why he thinks we do not actually need any nary thrombosis. For a good many yean we doctors have more carbohydrate than is contained in whole meat and talked about these things but only relatively recently have whole milk.