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The Fat of the Land
This book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to eat an all-meat diet or wants to learn more about the health benefits of a low-carbohydrate diet of meat and fish.
Arctic explorer and anthropologist Vilhjálmur Stefánsson spent years living with indigenous Inuit and Eskimo people. He noted their general healthiness (and good teeth), and an absence of many of the diseases that plagued western cultures, such as scurvy, heart disease, and diabetes. Observing their dietary habits, he determined that their primary food was meat, both lean and fatty, and that their diets were very low in sugary or starchy carbohydrates. Was this meaty diet the key to their good health?
The book chronicles a 1928 scientific experiment, conducted by the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology at Bellevue Hospital in New York, in which Stefansson and his colleague Dr. Karsten Andersen ate a meat-only diet for one year. The two men stayed healthy and fared very well, leading him to claim that we should reexamine our notion of what foods constitute a healthy diet.
Later chapters promote the benefits of pemmican, a compact, portable, and high-energy food consisting of a concentrated mix of fat and protein made from dried lean bison meat, sometimes mixed with berries. Pemmican is like the original energy bar, and Stefansson spent considerable time and energy urging the military to adopt it for emergency rations.
Arctic explorer and anthropologist Vilhjálmur Stefánsson spent years living with indigenous Inuit and Eskimo people. He noted their general healthiness (and good teeth), and an absence of many of the diseases that plagued western cultures, such as scurvy, heart disease, and diabetes. Observing their dietary habits, he determined that their primary food was meat, both lean and fatty, and that their diets were very low in sugary or starchy carbohydrates. Was this meaty diet the key to their good health?
The book chronicles a 1928 scientific experiment, conducted by the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology at Bellevue Hospital in New York, in which Stefansson and his colleague Dr. Karsten Andersen ate a meat-only diet for one year. The two men stayed healthy and fared very well, leading him to claim that we should reexamine our notion of what foods constitute a healthy diet.
Later chapters promote the benefits of pemmican, a compact, portable, and high-energy food consisting of a concentrated mix of fat and protein made from dried lean bison meat, sometimes mixed with berries. Pemmican is like the original energy bar, and Stefansson spent considerable time and energy urging the military to adopt it for emergency rations.
339 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
106 people are currently reading
526 people want to read
About the author
Vilhjálmur Stefánsson
108 books24 followersVilhjálmur Stefánsson (1879-1962) was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 8, 2017
A little bit of the all-meat life, a lot about pemmican
I found this book to be informative about pemmican and it's reception by anglos, and I enjoyed reading about the author's time with the Eskimos. Sometimes the book to digital translation was rough and letters like h show as il and dates like May 25th are written as May zsth, so there's a little translation required. I was interested in reading this book to learn more about an all-meat lifestyle and learned some valuable information about the diet and it's effects early in the book, but the last half is mostly about pemmican. This book did make me want to make pemmican.
I found this book to be informative about pemmican and it's reception by anglos, and I enjoyed reading about the author's time with the Eskimos. Sometimes the book to digital translation was rough and letters like h show as il and dates like May 25th are written as May zsth, so there's a little translation required. I was interested in reading this book to learn more about an all-meat lifestyle and learned some valuable information about the diet and it's effects early in the book, but the last half is mostly about pemmican. This book did make me want to make pemmican.
February 28, 2025
В последните години манията за палео, кето, нисковъглехидратното и високомазнинно, че и даже хищническо (само месо) хранене се развихря, а дори и някои лекари и изследователи-новатори си позволяват да почнат да правят и научни изследвания, за да проверят краткосрочните и по-дългосрочните ефекти на тоя тип хранене върху здравето на хората.
Да, ама тия лекари не са точно новатори - преди около, че даже и почти точно 100 години лекарите от най-известната тогава (и до сега) Mayo Clinic в САЩ се занимават да изследват... точно същия въпрос.
Въпросът, повдигнат от автора на настоящата книга, който живее в продължение на години с ескимосите в Аляска и се храни като тях - само и единствено с месо и риба. Очевидно не умира, завръща се в добро здраве към цивилизацията и прави няколко експедиции обратно.
Книгата разказва за живота на ескимосите (днес ги наричат инуити, ескимоси не било политически коректно...), обичаите и храненето им, както и проведените в САЩ експерименти с автора на книгата за хранене само с месо в контролирана клинична обстановка. Резултатите от изследванията са, че противно на очакванията, Вилхялмур не умира от скорбут и даже нищо му няма.
Втората половина от книгата е посветена изцяло на пемикана и не е особено интересна. Пемикан е индианска храна, която се приготвя от счукано сушено месо, натъпкано в торби от сурова кожа и залято със стопена мас - така то се запазва с години и е подходящо за припаси за зимата, експедиции и армейски дажби (за което го ползва американската армия тогава). Идеята на автора е, че човек може да живее месеци само на пемикан и да остане в добро здраве, ако не яде нищо друго.
Има няколко особено любопитни неща в книгата, които ще си позволя да изброя:
- Не всички ескимоси живеят в иглута, така са само тия по брега на океана. Тия по-навътре в сушата си живеят в дървени колиби.
- Ескимосите никак не са държеливи на студ - обличат се в супер подходящи леки кожени дрехи които много топлят, а в колибите им е супер топло до степен да стоят чисто голи вътре даже зимата.
- Противно на сегашните схващания за нисковъглехидратното хранене, ескимосите не употребяват никаква сол, авторът също свиква и не яде сол с години. Разсъжденията му относно солта са интересни.
- Противно на сегашните схващания за палео-храненето, ескимосите не ядат повечето вътрешности на животните и ги дават на кучетата.
Да, ама тия лекари не са точно новатори - преди около, че даже и почти точно 100 години лекарите от най-известната тогава (и до сега) Mayo Clinic в САЩ се занимават да изследват... точно същия въпрос.
Въпросът, повдигнат от автора на настоящата книга, който живее в продължение на години с ескимосите в Аляска и се храни като тях - само и единствено с месо и риба. Очевидно не умира, завръща се в добро здраве към цивилизацията и прави няколко експедиции обратно.
Книгата разказва за живота на ескимосите (днес ги наричат инуити, ескимоси не било политически коректно...), обичаите и храненето им, както и проведените в САЩ експерименти с автора на книгата за хранене само с месо в контролирана клинична обстановка. Резултатите от изследванията са, че противно на очакванията, Вилхялмур не умира от скорбут и даже нищо му няма.
Втората половина от книгата е посветена изцяло на пемикана и не е особено интересна. Пемикан е индианска храна, която се приготвя от счукано сушено месо, натъпкано в торби от сурова кожа и залято със стопена мас - така то се запазва с години и е подходящо за припаси за зимата, експедиции и армейски дажби (за което го ползва американската армия тогава). Идеята на автора е, че човек може да живее месеци само на пемикан и да остане в добро здраве, ако не яде нищо друго.
Има няколко особено любопитни неща в книгата, които ще си позволя да изброя:
- Не всички ескимоси живеят в иглута, така са само тия по брега на океана. Тия по-навътре в сушата си живеят в дървени колиби.
- Ескимосите никак не са държеливи на студ - обличат се в супер подходящи леки кожени дрехи които много топлят, а в колибите им е супер топло до степен да стоят чисто голи вътре даже зимата.
- Противно на сегашните схващания за нисковъглехидратното хранене, ескимосите не употребяват никаква сол, авторът също свиква и не яде сол с години. Разсъжденията му относно солта са интересни.
- Противно на сегашните схващания за палео-храненето, ескимосите не ядат повечето вътрешности на животните и ги дават на кучетата.
December 11, 2018
Tons of fascinating stuff in here about how Eskimos used to eat and how the all meat diet worked. I thought I was going to get bored with the last third of the book about pemmican, but it was actually interesting.
May 11, 2019
It's like 2 books in one. The first part about his life with the Eskimos is excellent. But then it goes on and on and on about pemmican which was too much and I admit I have skimmed through.
March 15, 2022
An homage to pemmican and the eating habits of explorers. No other text goes into such depth on pemmican and the fat/lean diet. Highly recommended.
March 22, 2019
A good book if you like nutrition and some history
I did’n know who was Vilhjamur Staffanson was or what he did it a interesting history about nutrition between real people and real world and theoretical people and some err typos...
I did’n know who was Vilhjamur Staffanson was or what he did it a interesting history about nutrition between real people and real world and theoretical people and some err typos...
July 4, 2019
The end of the book about pemmican drags on a bit, but the rest is fascinating and makes for a compelling read.
August 8, 2025
“We do not disagree with Iversen's "perhaps the greatest single step forward in the history of mankind was the transition from hunting to “agriculture," but we think an interpretation is needed. Carbohydrate, gift of the fanner to us, makes civilization possible; for now we produce many times more food on a unit of land; we have large families and leisure, we have built cities. But to make this a clear gain to man, it is necessary for him to turn a great pan of the carbohydrate into meat and milk by feeding it to stock. Otherwise he suffers in individual health; and in happiness, for the unhealthy are unhappy. And carbohydrates, as this book helps to explain, are not conducive to “optimum health, at least not if taken as a high percentage of the meal. A distinguished orthodontist has said, in a passage we quote more at length hereafter, that the Eskimos "are paying for civilization with their teeth." And, as this book means to show, the decay of teeth is only one of several important losses in health we suffer as a price of that food abundance which enables us to dwell in large cities and have "a high standard of living.”
“The most important effect of agriculture on efficiency probably results from malnutrition. . .One of the main reasons for poor nutrition is that agriculture has lowered the quality of man's diet and at the same time made it possible for more people to subsist. Mechanical methods of preparing food have gone still further along this same sad path until the typical 'modernized' diet “has become appallingly poor. By 'modernized' we do not mean the diet now eaten by the more intelligent and prosperous people of Europe and America, but the kind that is still eaten by people at the lower economic levels and in many other countries by the majority of the population. In such a diet, bread, cereals, potatoes and other forms of starchy food play a dominant part; the rest is largely composed of [vegetable] protein foods, such as beans, together with carbohydrates in the form of sugar.”
“After this come symptoms that are more readily discernible. There will be a tendency to bleed from the gums, as when the teeth are brushed. The patient begins to feel a stiffness and perhaps a slight pain in one or another of his joints. He may identify the bleeding from the gums as pyorrhea, and so may his doctor or dentist; the soreness of joints will be labeled a touch of rheumatism.
The pain in a joint will appear first where there is most use. A blacksmith would feel it in his arms, a mail-carrier in his legs; irrespective of use, the trouble spreads from joint to joint until finally there is pain in every one of them.”
“a worldwide and ages-long debate between those who like their food with a natural taste and those who like it seasoned”
“The most important effect of agriculture on efficiency probably results from malnutrition. . .One of the main reasons for poor nutrition is that agriculture has lowered the quality of man's diet and at the same time made it possible for more people to subsist. Mechanical methods of preparing food have gone still further along this same sad path until the typical 'modernized' diet “has become appallingly poor. By 'modernized' we do not mean the diet now eaten by the more intelligent and prosperous people of Europe and America, but the kind that is still eaten by people at the lower economic levels and in many other countries by the majority of the population. In such a diet, bread, cereals, potatoes and other forms of starchy food play a dominant part; the rest is largely composed of [vegetable] protein foods, such as beans, together with carbohydrates in the form of sugar.”
“After this come symptoms that are more readily discernible. There will be a tendency to bleed from the gums, as when the teeth are brushed. The patient begins to feel a stiffness and perhaps a slight pain in one or another of his joints. He may identify the bleeding from the gums as pyorrhea, and so may his doctor or dentist; the soreness of joints will be labeled a touch of rheumatism.
The pain in a joint will appear first where there is most use. A blacksmith would feel it in his arms, a mail-carrier in his legs; irrespective of use, the trouble spreads from joint to joint until finally there is pain in every one of them.”
“a worldwide and ages-long debate between those who like their food with a natural taste and those who like it seasoned”
April 21, 2024
Old school diet book which amongst other idiosyncrasies had to find biblical justification for a high fat diet, hence "Fat of the Land". Interesting in that even back when this was written the proponents were worried that if one person in a high fat no carb diet was hit by a truck they thought the opposition would twist it into evidence the diet causes death.
There is some context missing in the parts on Shackleton and other Arctic explorers who were forced to live on meat for long periods. They didn't enjoy it, it wad a necessity due to being able to eat seals and little else, it made it more difficult to go to the bathroom, exacerbated by chafing and discomfort and the most popular book they brought with them was a desert cookbook where the men could plan what they would eat on their return. One stating he's never going to have meat again. Whilst not fatal, it's not evidence for sustainability!
The permican part was quite interesting and I was actually going to try some before I saw the price!
There is some context missing in the parts on Shackleton and other Arctic explorers who were forced to live on meat for long periods. They didn't enjoy it, it wad a necessity due to being able to eat seals and little else, it made it more difficult to go to the bathroom, exacerbated by chafing and discomfort and the most popular book they brought with them was a desert cookbook where the men could plan what they would eat on their return. One stating he's never going to have meat again. Whilst not fatal, it's not evidence for sustainability!
The permican part was quite interesting and I was actually going to try some before I saw the price!
May 9, 2023
I really find the content of this book quite interesting, but this edition is so full of mistakes that it is a mystery to me that it ever went to print. Almost every page has misspellings and just strange characters put in. There are pieces of sentences missing or misplaced, or even whole paragraphs misplaced. There are what I believe to be footnote marks but the footnotes are missing. Also the layout of the book is horribly dull, with no paragraph division whatsoever and the font very faint, making this a real bore to read. I had a hard time completing this book which was a disappointment since I was really interested in the subject. I should really hope for a new edition of this otherwise exiting book.
June 6, 2023
Pemican for the win.
If you can get through all the misspellings and grammer issues, which makes it difficult to read, then the information is quite interesting. It's an interesting tale of history through the use of Pemican. Not exactly what I was expecting but good nevertheless.
If you can get through all the misspellings and grammer issues, which makes it difficult to read, then the information is quite interesting. It's an interesting tale of history through the use of Pemican. Not exactly what I was expecting but good nevertheless.
April 11, 2022
An explorer’s diet diary around the arctic circle. Draws on anthropology and science, but is really just a recount of observable effects of a lean meat/fat human diet.
I could definitely live the rest of my life never hearing about Pemmican again, though. Yeesh.
I could definitely live the rest of my life never hearing about Pemmican again, though. Yeesh.
February 14, 2025
It's a nice little mix of anthropology, dietetics, and history. The first half is more diet oriented then it kind of devolves into history; he waffles a bit. Still fairly interesting, but I fell off about halfway through. I got what I needed from it.
April 4, 2025
Kindle version full of OCR glitched
A fascinating look into the viability of animal based eating. Too bad there were so many errors in creating the ebook version. Many numbers turned into garbage character strings.
I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t more details about his friend’s experience on the year of eating only meat. But there were more details about pemmican than needed.
A fascinating look into the viability of animal based eating. Too bad there were so many errors in creating the ebook version. Many numbers turned into garbage character strings.
I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t more details about his friend’s experience on the year of eating only meat. But there were more details about pemmican than needed.
July 26, 2020
A loved this book, it's well written and original in its content. If you want to explore PALEO or KETO its a must-read.
March 13, 2021
It started out strong and then devolved into everything pemmican. I found the chapters on pemmican overly long, repetitive, and screaming to be condensed.
May 8, 2022
It strengthened my resolve to remain on a carnivore diet.
Read
November 12, 2018This year I became fascinated with how our diet affects our health. I read this book out of a desire to get to the roots of the current carnivore diet phenomena. Vilhjálmur Stefánsson was one of the first persons to explore this topic. Being the first, he makes all future diet/nutrition books obsolete--here is the correct way to eat, and every other way is wrong (I’m not joking). Here is the remedy to the vast majority of the illnesses inflicting Western people, and most people will not have the willpower to try it out.
Reading this book will certainly motivate you to try it out, though. It’s a revelatory read, and only gets boring until the end, where Stefánsson spends many chapters expounding on pemmican and its role in wartime. Everything before that, however, is required reading.
Reading this book will certainly motivate you to try it out, though. It’s a revelatory read, and only gets boring until the end, where Stefánsson spends many chapters expounding on pemmican and its role in wartime. Everything before that, however, is required reading.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews