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Sama Hoole @SamaHoole - 1928, Bellevue Hospital, New York.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson has agreed to eat nothing but meat for one year under medical supervision to prove the Inuit diet works.
The doctors are certain he'll develop scurvy and die.
Week 1: The hospital decides to start him on lean meat. Mostly muscle meat. Minimal fat. This is "cleaner" and "safer" in their minds.
Day 3: Stefansson feels off. Nausea. Weakness. Diarrhea starting.
Day 5: Symptoms worsening. Doctors are taking notes excitedly. "See? The meat diet is failing already."
Day 7: Stefansson is genuinely ill. Severe diarrhea. Protein poisoning symptoms. He tells the doctors: "I need fat. The Inuit never eat lean meat alone."
Doctors: "No, we're testing the meat diet. This is meat."
Stefansson: "Lean meat will kill me. I've seen it happen in the Arctic. I need fat."
Doctors: "That's not scientific. Continue with lean meat."
Day 10: Stefansson is so ill he can barely stand. The hospital staff are preparing to declare the experiment a failure.
Stefansson, from his hospital bed: "Add fat or I'm leaving."
The doctors finally relent. They add fatty meat to his diet.
Within 48 hours: Symptoms gone. Completely. Diarrhea stops. Energy returns. Nausea vanishes.
The doctors are confused. They'd assumed protein was the issue. But it was the LACK OF FAT causing protein poisoning.
Stefansson continues for 51 more weeks eating fatty meat. Perfect health. No deficiencies. Published in JAMA 1930.