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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Two agricultures not one

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Two agricultures not one
  • Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2010 07:53:31 -0400

On 10/01/2010 04:55 PM, John D'hondt wrote:

Absolutely right Paul but vitamin C (and a few other things like folate) must come from a plant source since no meat will have enough of it. Nobody can live without vitamin C for very long but just about every plant will have it.
john

The complete picture where Vitamin C requirements are concerned is more complicated than that. Ever since the British Navy discovered they could prevent scurvy by giving their sailors a daily dose of lime juice (their sailors becoming known as "limies" as a result), we've chanted the mantra of "fresh fruits and vegetables" as the necessary source of Vit C, since in fact it doesn't show up in meat.

But the theory doesn't explain why the Inuit--who ate little plant matter in the warm season and none at all the rest of the year--had no problem with scurvy. Remember as well the experience of the Scott and Amundsen parties in their "race" to the South Pole: Neither had any fresh plant foods whatever. Scott's team ate the highly processed junk foods that have come to characterize "civilization"--hardtack (essentially just refined flour) and other dried foods, canned and dried meats, etc. Amundsen's team had made depots of freshly killed seals (frozen in the depots, of course) which they used as the foundation of their diet. They also killed and ate their dogs as their loads lightened and they needed fewer of them.

Amundsen's men returned from the Pole completely fit, not even having lost weight following their exertions. Scott's team all died--of scurvy.

Since the "essential" Vitamin C was not present in either diet, it is clear that Vit C's role in nutrition is more complicated than our fresh-fruits-and-vegetables mantra implies.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

My book, THE MODERN HOMESTEAD POULTRY FLOCK, will be published next year by
Chelsea Green Publishing.





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