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Not by bread alone,
The author details his experiment in extreme nutrition. This famous book extols the virtues of meat in the human diet.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
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135 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 29, 2014
Vilhjalmur Stefansson details many aspects of historical nutrition, mostly revolving his time spent living for a considerable time with different Inuit groups. He explains how humans can survive and thrive on eating nothing but meat - no breads, cereals, grains, fruits or even vegetables. This runs completely contrary to what we are told is proper nutrition. He provides reasoning behind the need for fat in our diets, and how it must be in proper proportion to our lean protein intake.
A few of the big subjects he covers in detail:
1)Time with the Eskimos (Inuit).
2)Meals of the Inuit, including rotten fish and rotten meat, lean and fatty meats.
3)Follow-up and controversial experiments on an all-meat diet in the United States.
4)Pemmican's role in founding America and the fur-trade.
5)History and misinformation on scurvy.
6)Anthropological evidence of meat, fruit and vegetables in the diet of ancient man through today.
7)Introduction of sugars and grains to the human diet.
I found the information on sugars and scurvy very interesting. I came to the book by way of inter-library loan, as it is not normally available. I had heard about it from the works of Gary Taubes and others who cite his experiences with the Inuit. The work is compelling.
For further works, including more detailed accounts of his time with he Eskimo:
1)Anthropological Papers, 1913
2)My Life with the Eskimo, 1914
3)The Friendly Arctic, 1921
A few of the big subjects he covers in detail:
1)Time with the Eskimos (Inuit).
2)Meals of the Inuit, including rotten fish and rotten meat, lean and fatty meats.
3)Follow-up and controversial experiments on an all-meat diet in the United States.
4)Pemmican's role in founding America and the fur-trade.
5)History and misinformation on scurvy.
6)Anthropological evidence of meat, fruit and vegetables in the diet of ancient man through today.
7)Introduction of sugars and grains to the human diet.
I found the information on sugars and scurvy very interesting. I came to the book by way of inter-library loan, as it is not normally available. I had heard about it from the works of Gary Taubes and others who cite his experiences with the Inuit. The work is compelling.
For further works, including more detailed accounts of his time with he Eskimo:
1)Anthropological Papers, 1913
2)My Life with the Eskimo, 1914
3)The Friendly Arctic, 1921
February 21, 2018
At times quite academic but overall fascinating exploration into the role of native diets for arctic travellers and pemmican as a food source in North America and elsewhere, both by the native populations and the early settlers. All we need for health is meat, fresh, frozen, or made in to pemmican.
Especially telling is the description of the study done that rejected the use of pemmican as a military ration: it's impossible for anyone with knowledge/experience of ketogenic diets not to recognise the keto-flu that so confounded the six day experiment. Despite describing an adaptation period when changing to a meat diet, Stefansson himself misses the connection.
Especially telling is the description of the study done that rejected the use of pemmican as a military ration: it's impossible for anyone with knowledge/experience of ketogenic diets not to recognise the keto-flu that so confounded the six day experiment. Despite describing an adaptation period when changing to a meat diet, Stefansson himself misses the connection.
February 25, 2024
“…Cain the gardener killed Abel the shepherd, foreshadowing that bitterness which the vegetarians still feel against those who persist in the eating of sirloins and chops.”
So writes Vilhjalmur Steffanson in his colorful wide-ranging account of the field of nutrition and dietetics in the early 20th century. Steffanson made a name for himself as a polar explorer and anthropologist who lived among the Eskimos and Inuit for five years. While his other writings focus more exclusively on travel and ethnography, “Not by Bread Alone” is focused more generally on his theories of health and nutrition in austere environments.
Steffanson writes at length about the high-fat diet of the Inuit, speculating that their food content rather than their genetics protected against what we might today call “diseases of civilization.” As evidence, he notes that that Native Americans who adopted modern Western diets quickly developed diseases they previously had little experience with. The first third of the book strongly echoes the expansive research of Weston Price in the 1930s who catalogued the divergent incidence of tooth decay in Africa and the Pacific between populations on European or indigenous diets.
Steffanson later surveys the diets of mariners during the Age of Exploration, fur traders, fellow polar explorers, and American pioneers. The success of these travelers (I.e. avoiding or curing scurvy) in his view depended in large part on their receptiveness to adopting the diets and practices of native tribes.
The shelf-stable Indian invention of pemmican receives special attention, and the last chapter is devoted to the struggle between the emerging field of Army nutrition and the antiquarians like Steffanson who argued for the use of pemmican as a military field ration by the Allies during WW2.
There is something very familiar about Steffanson’s personality and the controversies he was routinely embroiled in, suggesting that the bitter debates over vegetarianism, veganism, and meat-eating go back much further than most realize.
So writes Vilhjalmur Steffanson in his colorful wide-ranging account of the field of nutrition and dietetics in the early 20th century. Steffanson made a name for himself as a polar explorer and anthropologist who lived among the Eskimos and Inuit for five years. While his other writings focus more exclusively on travel and ethnography, “Not by Bread Alone” is focused more generally on his theories of health and nutrition in austere environments.
Steffanson writes at length about the high-fat diet of the Inuit, speculating that their food content rather than their genetics protected against what we might today call “diseases of civilization.” As evidence, he notes that that Native Americans who adopted modern Western diets quickly developed diseases they previously had little experience with. The first third of the book strongly echoes the expansive research of Weston Price in the 1930s who catalogued the divergent incidence of tooth decay in Africa and the Pacific between populations on European or indigenous diets.
Steffanson later surveys the diets of mariners during the Age of Exploration, fur traders, fellow polar explorers, and American pioneers. The success of these travelers (I.e. avoiding or curing scurvy) in his view depended in large part on their receptiveness to adopting the diets and practices of native tribes.
The shelf-stable Indian invention of pemmican receives special attention, and the last chapter is devoted to the struggle between the emerging field of Army nutrition and the antiquarians like Steffanson who argued for the use of pemmican as a military field ration by the Allies during WW2.
There is something very familiar about Steffanson’s personality and the controversies he was routinely embroiled in, suggesting that the bitter debates over vegetarianism, veganism, and meat-eating go back much further than most realize.
May 7, 2019
Interesting info but I didn't particularly like the format. I would have preferred just reading of his experiences and impressions.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews