What Was So Special About The Explorer Stefansson?
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian-American arctic explorer, author, and scientist who is credited with being an expert on Eskimo life and language. His work began in about 1904 when he set off to study the language and diet of Icelandic residents. By 1918, Stefansson had established himself as an expert on polar inhabitants, language, and dietary habits in the United States after completing numerous works and lectures on the subject. While he had many claims to fame, and provided the world with a great deal of worthwhile information, it was this expertise on diet that interested the majority of people all over the world.
Stefansson became a person of considerable interest to dieters due to the fact that he essentially designed an early variation of the “low-carb” diet. He came up with the diet plan while studying the Inuit people during his journeys. During this time he documented the fact that most of these people lived on a diet that consisted of approximately 90% meat and fish. It was not uncommon for the Inuit people to live for up to nine months on nothing other than meat or fish. This fascinated Stefansson because there was no other source of food consumed, no vegetables, and no carbohydrates. What surprised him even more was that he determined these people were completely healthy. They did not appear to be malnourished, nor did they appear to have any deficiencies. After Stefansson reported his findings, the medical community immediately questioned him and his facts. In order to prove his data, he, along with a fellow explorer, agreed to become subjects in a study under the supervision of the Journal of the American Medical Association to further prove humans could survive, and in fact thrive, by consuming a diet of 100% meat. The subjects were monitored over the course of a year, and found that at the end of the study both men were indeed perfectly healthy.
This data led Stefansson to declare that nutritionists were in error when they promoted a balanced diet consisting of all major food groups. He was convinced that the best type of diet consisted of fat, meat, and water only. He became so positive of these results that he completely switched to this diet (sometimes called a “stone-age diet”) in 1955. He believed so strongly in his theories that he wrote two books on them: “Not By Bread Alone” in 1946, and “Cancer: Disease of Civilization?” in 1960. Stefansson credited this diet with helping him to maintain his health and fitness until the day he died on August 26, 1962 at the ripe old age of 82.
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