Vegetables: A Mandate Of Sadness
Everyone in the UK has grown up with the 5-a-day rule drilled into them, but is it true, or is it just exceptionally catchy marketing? For those outside our quirky little island and thus not in the know, it’s our mandated daily quota of fruit and vegetables, designed to prevent obesity and keep us healthy.
But before you scoff that end-of-day clementine to drag yourself over the line, have you ever wondered if it's true? After all, people living in the world's extremes, such as the Arctic Circle, have survived on an almost exclusively meat diet for millennia.
But how? It’s undeniable that fruit and vegetables are good for you – they’re chock full of vitamins and minerals. Without them, you’re liable to contract a number of quite serious ailments. Ask any sailor from the 18th century, and they’ll tell you: scurvy is no joke.
According to science, it all boils down to two things: genetics and the types of meat the Arctic peoples ate in their traditional diet.
Genetically Engineered Meat Eaters
In a high-fat, high-meat diet, you might expect an epidemic of cardiac disease and diabetes. So did the scientists, who were surprised to learn that, generally speaking, Inuit peoples tended to have far lower rates, about half that of the average American and Canadian.
The initial hypothesis of researchers was that a high consumption of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids found in the meat and blubber was acting as a sort of protection — the old gag-inducing spoonful of cod liver oil does you good line.
But as it turns out, far more was going on beneath the surface, specifically at the microscopic and genetic level. From preliminary research – and I feel the need to stress it is just preliminary; genetics is a complicated thing, folks – they found a genetic mutation present in 100% of Inuit peoples that was only present in 2% of Europeans. The mutation is believed to lower fasting insulin levels and bad cholesterol (LDL).
According to Dr. Matteo Fumagalli, a co-author of one of the studies, the selection for this mutation is old – ‘at least 20,000 years old’. This places its emergence at the last glacial maximum, or excluding the Younger Dryas, the last ice age.
Now, there are some trade-offs that come with the mutation. From what we know so far, it affects the regulation of growth hormones in the body, which is influenced by the profile of fatty acids. This means that, on average, an Inuit's height is reduced by 1 inch or 2 cm – depending on what part of the world you are from. That being said, if I had to choose between greater survivability in cold weather and reaching the top shelf at the supermarket, the decision wouldn’t be an arduous one.
Another issue that comes with a high meat diet is the protein ceiling, a fact that's often willfully ignored by a number of fad health gurus – looking at you, Atkins fans.
The inconvenient truth is that there is an evidential limit to the volume of protein a human being can absorb. Some thinkers in the field, such as Loren Cordain, professor of evolutionary nutrition at Colorado State University, have posited that this could be a result of the way in which the human body processes energy. The concept isn’t new; the term ‘rabbit starvation’ is thought to date back at least 2000 years to the time of the Romans.
Primarily, humans convert carbohydrates into glucose as this is the path of least resistance – it's easier and quicker for the body to do. However, when the body runs out of carbs, it burns fat or, usually as a last resort, protein; because it's really hard to do.
Gluconeogenesis is the process of getting glucose from protein. It takes place in the liver and requires a host of enzymes that, in turn, produce nitrogen as a waste product. This nitrogen then has to be converted into urea and expelled from the body to prevent a build-up.
Why is this relevant? Well, Arctic peoples have evolved in an area with low carbohydrates and high protein, and it’s had physiological effects. Specifically, they have bigger livers capable of performing this chemical function, as well as the ability to produce larger urine volumes to get rid of the urea faster. These two factors mean they are able to enjoy a high-protein diet whilst being largely unaffected by protein poisoning.
Now, of course, there are other genetic adaptations unique to the people of the Arctic that are still being explored, which are almost certainly part of a web of mechanisms that make the people of the Arctic ultra-effective in the harsh climate. For now, at least, we have some preliminary data on how the peoples of the Arctic have, for millennia, survived on an exclusively meat and fat diet whilst remaining unblighted by a slew of health problems.
Offaly Good For You
So, genetics explain how Arctic peoples process fat, but where does their vitamin and mineral intake come from? Well, offal is, as the subtitle would suggest, awfully good for you – albeit the thing that makes the Western palate go 'ewwww’.
Vitamins A and D are oil-soluble and are found in sufficient quantities in cold-water fish and mammals, particularly in their livers. But how exactly Arctic peoples managed to obtain vitamin C, the great guardian against scurvy, was for a long time a mystery.
Now, there are a couple of things to note. Firstly, despite what many government intake guidelines would have you believe, you only need 10 milligrams a day to ward off scurvy. To be clear, that isn’t health advice, and just because you can survive on 10 milligrams doesn’t mean you should skirt the line between serious illness and life.
Secondly, aside from humans and a few outlier species, most animals naturally produce their own vitamin C, which means it isn’t just found in high amounts in citrus fruits but also in meat. Specifically, organ meat, particularly when eaten raw, which, if presented to me, would draw out the Gordon Ramsay inside.
In fact, one of the delicacies of the Inuit diet, Muktuk (whale skin and blubber eaten raw), has such a high vitamin C content that consuming it is equivalent to drinking a glass of orange juice.
Free-Range Fat
Something else often ignored is the type of fat and cholesterol that develops in a food animal as a result of its diet. Unsaturated fats and HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, in moderation, are healthy for you and form a key part of a balanced diet. Trans and saturated fats and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol are the types you want to avoid.
And as you have probably already guessed, the carbohydrate-rich feed we give our modern farm animals produces the bad stuff, while free-range and wild game produce more of the good stuff. So, as it turns out, free-range is better for both you and the animal.
The TLDR
As it turns out, you don’t need five fruits and vegetables a day if your body has specific genetic and physiological adaptations, and the meat you eat is sometimes raw, often offal, and always free-range.
A little sidenote: the Atkins Diet is a fad and an unhealthy one at that – Dr. Atkins himself died clinically obese and riddled with heart disease.
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