Stefansson's book online

[TylerDurden]

Here is the full online version of Stefansson's book "The Fat of the Land", posted as a sticky :-


http://www.zerocarbage.com/library/FOTL.pdf

(I should add a note of caution:- Stefansson is decidedly anti-raw and anti-organ-meats in his views so is extremely reluctant to admit that the Eskimoes ate plenty of raw meats and organ-meats - all other Arctic explorer-types state that the Eskimoes did indeed eat plenty of either. Stefansson's stance was that one could get by on a diet consisting only of fatty muscle-meat, so he is very biased re this. Ironically, in his Bellevue experiment, Stefansson and his colleague ate some raw organs(raw marrow), thus rather disproving his theory that they weren't needed).

[Satya]

He gets into the Eskimos and raw food on pages 104-05 and elsewhere. 

"It was not true, as implied by the usual northern movie
and by some writers, that Eskimos preferred to eat their food
raw. A few things were preferred raw, among them seal liver;
but most were preferred boiled or roasted, and if they were
eaten raw it was usually for convenience. Still it is true that
the Eskimos ate wholly uncooked meats more frequently
 than we do."

Oh, and the cooking of meat in liquid may have been to thaw the meat more than anything. 
Also, fire for warmth was a necessity.  Perhaps the boiling/braising of meat was a
result of always having a fire.  You know, may as well use it for more
than warming bodies.  Just a thought.  It is interesting that they used
the least harmful cooking method when they did cook.

[TylerDurden]

The trouble is that the Eskimoes ate rather more than just seal liver raw, such as raw whalemeat etc. And the fish high-meat was a preferred food among the Eskimoes, as well.

I suspect that since Stefansson could only find 1 group(eskimoes) eating zero-carb and partially raw at that, he didn't want to focus on the raw aspect as he knew it would put off many westerners.

[goodsamaritan]

How many different eskimo tribes did Steffanson live with?

[TylerDurden]

How many different eskimo tribes did Steffanson live with?

I have no idea. I suspect that it couldn't have been more than 2 or 3.

[Raw Kyle]

Can anyone just go and live with some eskimos? I'd consider doing it if I could be guaranteed a book deal to write about my experiences afterwords.

[William]

Can anyone just go and live with some eskimos? I'd consider doing it if I could be guaranteed a book deal to write about my experiences afterwords.

Yes, but you would not like it. They are going through culture shock,  with high suicide rate, wife/child abuse, sickness from SAD diet etc.
Some outsiders in every Inuit community/settlement where they were put by gov't decree, such as missionaries, teachers, police, town administrators and other parasites.

Stefansson saw the beginning of this, did not know what he was seeing when he saw them cook in pots.

[Cosmo]

Vilhjalmur Stefansson died at the age of 81 from a stroke. Actually he had 3 strokes,  he suffered a minor stroke when he was 71, then another one at the age of 77, the third one finished him.
it just shows that eating cooked meat and fat is not the same as eating them raw. He could have lived much longer if he avoided cooked meat and included raw organs like liver. But still 81 is not too bad I suppose.

[goodsamaritan]

81 would be a tragedy for myself.
My father side grandparents and great grandparents had lived 100+
My mother side grandparents 85+
And they are no health buffs.

Now that I've learned about health, I expect to live 100+
Although the wild card is the abuse I went through with an unhealthy life 35+ years since I was born.

[Hannibal]

Vilhjalmur Stefansson died at the age of 81 from a stroke. Actually he had 3 strokes,  he suffered a minor stroke when he was 71, then another one at the age of 77, the third one finished him.

But when he was older and has married he changed his diet towards SAD
Besides there are quite many things that determine our general health - diet isn't the only one

[Cosmo]

But when he was older and has married he changed his diet towards SAD
Besides there are quite many things that determine our general health - diet isn't the only one

It's hard to believe that he abandoned his belief in zero-carb diet, especially after he wrote a book about it and tried to convert others.
Hannibal, where did you find evedince that Stefansson changed his diet to SAD???

Diet is not the only factor that help live longer but it's the main one, the other big factor is - not overeating.
Eat less - live longer! 2 meals a day should be enough.

[Cosmo]

81 would be a tragedy for myself.

Now that I've learned about health, I expect to live 100+
Although the wild card is the abuse I went through with an unhealthy life 35+ years since I was born.

I'd be happy to live till 81. I doesn't matter how long you live but HOW you live.
We must stay on this forum and follow each other's progress - let's see who will die first
And as bout your unhealthy years, I'm sure you new diet will reverse all the negative effects of the old habits. Luckily for us our human body is designed for constant regeneration!

[Hannibal]

It's hard to believe that he abandoned his belief in zero-carb diet, especially after he wrote a book about it and tried to convert others.
Hannibal, where did you find evedince that Stefansson changed his diet to SAD???

I found it here - http://rawpaleodiet.vpinf.com/rvaf-overview.html (you have to scroll down to the passage about Stefansson)

[TylerDurden]

One has to wonder if Stefansson's diet couldn't have been that healthy if he felt it was OK to switch over to a refined diet.

Re early health-problems:- While one can recover from serious past illness, there's no guarantee whatsoever that all previous harm can be undone. For example, I'm pretty sure that if I'd never had all those health-problems as a child I would have ended up being several inches taller in adulthood(whereas I'm now only 6ft),  but there are many other issues - after all, many things happen during developnment top adulthood so it is perfectly possible that my heart or some other organ, while capable of mostly being repaired, has endured some permanent damage while eating SMD for my first 3 decades. So my health is likely not remotely as good as someone of equal age raised on this rpd diet for the first 36 years of his life, even if I feel pretty good now.

[Cosmo]

I found it here - http://rawpaleodiet.vpinf.com/rvaf-overview.html (you have to scroll down to the passage about Stefansson)

Thanks, Hannibal!
It just shows that marriage shortens your life span :-))))))))))
"Steffanson ate raw foods for much of his adult life, including plentiful raw animal food, changing to a more refined and processed diet only after he married later in life (he later hit health problems due to the switch."
He was married at the age of 61 and had his first stroke at the age of 71.
Hey guys, if you are married, get a divorce as soon as possible! :-))))))))))))))))))))

By the way, "Humans live on average 39.5 years in Swaziland[2] and on average 81 years in Japan (2008 est.). The oldest confirmed recorded age for any human is 122 years (see Jeanne Calment)" .

[Hannibal]

It just shows that marriage shortens your life span :-))))))))))

But it could be very true, if the diet and lifestyle re health of your wife is unhealthy
You could end up like her, esp. when You you're deeply in love with her.

[Cosmo]

Hannibal, you are absolutely right, For example, I became single in 2007 and finally was able to experiment with different diets. If I wasn't single I would have never tried raw diet or raw paelo diet. Living on my own helped me to stick to raw food as there wasn't anyone to tempt me with cooked food, cakes or chocolates ;-))))))))))))
Being single turned out to be the thing ever for me as it helped to become super-healthy and super-strong.

[TylerDurden]

By the way, the stefansson quote from vinny's page above is a load of ****. In fact Stefansson always advocated and ate, 99% of the time,  a cooked-meat diet and frowned on organs and raw(though he did eat some small amounts of raw marrow during his bellevue experiment).

[Cosmo]

By the way, the stefansson quote from vinny's page above is a load of ****. In fact Stefansson always advocated and ate, 99% of the time,  a cooked-meat diet and frowned on organs and raw(though he did eat some small amounts of raw marrow during his bellevue experiment).

That was Stefansson's biggest mistake! His body was overloaded with saturated fat and cholestorol (from cooked meat and fat). That explains why he suffered 3 strokes and died quite early.
Thanks, Tyler, for your input on the matter.

[van]

excess carbs also cause the same, if not more.   Heart disease was hardly a factor 80 years ago. 

[aariel]

As I recall from my reading of TFOTL, Stefansson's younger wife tempted him with sweets and that was the "cause" of his early strokes.
Also, he did eat raw when he lived with the Eskimos, but when he was back in the states, he ate cooked food. I'm re-reading the book now so I'll keep this thread in mind as I go.

[tammy123]

I have not heard about this book before but reading all the posts here making me anxious for reading this book and I will soon download this book, so that I can able to get some better updates.

Thanks

[pioneer]

Actually there is no correlation between saturated fat and cholesterol to heart disease. The lipid hypothesis was just a made up hypothesis by a biochemist named Ancel Keys in 1953. He traveled the world to 22 countries studying whether there was a correlation between high fat/cholesterol consumption and heart disease. However in 1962 (I think) he had a 7 country study posted in Times magazine. Whats wrong with that? He had reliable data from 22 countries but only posted the 7 that correlated with his hypothesis. Now pharmaceutical companies can sell statin drugs to the mass public without any science to back it up and get away with it. I dont care whether saturated fat is cooked or raw, it does not contribute to heart disease and never did. Dietary cholesterol also has nothing to do with your body's cholesterol levels. I do agree that raw fats are 10 times superior to cooked fats, but nevertheless cooked fats still don't contribute to heart disease. Ask yourselves, if it was formulated in 1953, why is it still a hypothesis? because it cannot be proven, it is wrong.

A good person who really knows the truth is Brian Penski- world renowned physiologist who performs only experiments, not studies that can be easily manipulated by statistics (much like Ancel Keys). Penski clearly states that 60% of plaque is oxidized omega 6 fatty acids from olive, canola, and other vegetable oils. He says that the key to health is a low carbohydrate diet utilizing plenty saturated fat and only "parent omega 3/6's" or unadulterated omega 3/6's like cold pressed organic oils, then your body knows what to do with them. Check out Brian Penski on oneradio.com

Check out this video for the cholesterol myth      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SSCNaaDcE

Also, where did you hear that eating less was healthy? is there any validity to that? Personally I agree with you on not buying into all the "you need 6 meals a day for optimal health" saying. I think we humans were meant to only eat once or twice a day, but whats wrong with eating 4000 calories a day provided that it is raw?
 

[TylerDurden]

There is ample scientific evidence to show that eating less(intermittent fasting not caloric restriction as such) helps re improved health etc.:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting

As for the above claims re cooked saturated fats being supposedly healthy, they are dead wrong. For one thing, endless studies have shown that cooked animal foods(especially those with high in saturated fats) produce much higher amounts of heat-created toxins than cooked plant foods. The only thing those studies got wrong was in focusing on saturated fats when it's clear that it's the heated glycotoxins etc. in those saturated-fat-heavy foods which is the real problem:-

"The formation of exogenous (outside the body) advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and oxidation products generated during cooking may be a confounding factor that some studies may not have controlled for. It has been suggested that, "given the prominence of this type of food in the human diet, the deleterious effects of high-(saturated)fat foods may be in part due to the high content in glycotoxins, above and beyond those due to oxidized fatty acid derivatives." The glycotoxins, as he called them, are more commonly called AGEs"
 taken from:-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fat

[RawZi]

I have not heard about this book before but reading all the posts here making me anxious for reading this book and I will soon download this book, so that I can able to get some better updates.

    http://www.rawfoodlifetoday.com/

    Is this book in your signature vegan?