Protein poisoning (additionally referred to colloquially as rabbit hunger, mal de caribou, or fats hunger) refers to a hypothesized acute type of malnutrition brought on by a food regimen poor in fats, the place virtually all energy consumed come from lean meat.[1][2] The idea is mentioned within the context of paleoanthropologial investigations into the food regimen of historic people, particularly over the past glacial most and at excessive latitudes.[3][4]
The time period rabbit hunger originates from the truth that rabbit meat could be very lean, with virtually all of its caloric content material from protein relatively than fats, and due to this fact a meals which, if consumed completely, would trigger protein poisoning.[4] Animals in harsh, chilly environments equally change into lean.[3]
The reported signs embody preliminary nausea and fatigue, adopted by diarrhea and in the end loss of life.[4]
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Observations[edit]
In Appian’s Roman Historical past, Quantity I, E book VI: The Wars in Spain, Chapter IX, web page 223 the creator notes a large number of Roman troopers dying of extreme diarrhea after consuming largely rabbits whereas besieging town Intercatia in approx 150 B.C.E. Appian wrote:
The explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson is alleged to have lived for years completely on sport meat and fish, with no unwell results. The identical is true for his fellow explorer Karsten Anderson. As a part of his promotion of meat-only food regimen modeled on Inuit delicacies, and to reveal the consequences, in New York Metropolis starting in February 1928, Stefansson and Anderson “lived and ate in the metabolism ward of Russell Sage Institute of Pathology of Bellevue Hospital, New York” for a yr, with their metabolic efficiency carefully noticed, all this partly funded by the Institute of American Meat Packers.[6] Researchers hoping to duplicate Stefansson’s expertise with rabbit hunger within the discipline urged him to chop the fats consumption in his all-meat food regimen to zero. He did, and skilled a a lot faster onset of diarrhea than within the discipline. With fats added again in, Stefansson recovered, though with a 10-day interval of constipation afterwards. The research reported discovering no earlier medical literature inspecting both the consequences of meat-only diets, which seem like sustainable, or on rabbit hunger, which is deadly.
Stefansson wrote:
A World Struggle II-era Arctic survival booklet issued by the Flight Management Command of america Military Air Forces included this emphatic warning: “Because of the importance of fats, under no conditions limit yourself to a meat diet of rabbit just because they happen to be plentiful in the region where you are forced down. A continued diet of rabbit will produce rabbit starvation — diarrhea will begin in about a week and if the diet is continued DEATH MAY RESULT.”[8]
In Into the Wild (1996), Jon Krakauer conjectured that Chris McCandless might need suffered from rabbit hunger.[citation needed]
Physiology[edit]
The U.S. and Canadian Dietary Reference Consumption assessment for protein mentions “rabbit starvation”, however concluded that there was not adequate proof by 2005 to determine a Tolerable higher consumption degree, i.e., an higher restrict for the way a lot protein could be safely consumed.[9]
Fashionable people are reportedly solely able to deriving 20% of their vitality wants from protein.[10] For arctic hunter-gatherers nonetheless, the quantity can seasonally enhance to 45%.[11] In accordance with Bilsborough and Mann (2006), the protein consumption is principally restricted by the urea cycle. They recommend a restrict of two.5 g/kg.[10]
See additionally[edit]
References[edit] – “protein intoxication”
Additional studying[edit]
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“protein intoxication”