In the past few hundred years, mankind's exploration of the world has never been more radical, and the ocean is the favorite place for countless brave people to challenge, but there is a disease that is the nightmare of the navigation age-scurvy!
The dreams of countless sailors and explorers have been taken away by scurvy. It is no exaggeration to call scurvy "the sea monster".
it was not until the 8th century that a surgeon named James Lind discovered that fruits and fresh vegetables could be used to treat and prevent scurvy.
Now, it is very clear that scurvy is caused by the lack of vitamin C, and human beings are special beings on the earth, so we can't synthesize many essential nutrients, including vitamin C ..
We can only get these substances which can't be synthesized by human body through food. Vitamin C is widely found in fruits and vegetables, but we can't carry enough vegetables when sailing at sea, which is the reason why sailors are prone to scurvy.
Legend: Scurvy in the age of navigation
However, Eskimos living in the Arctic Circle do not seem to have such troubles. The cold polar regions can't develop agriculture, and they lack foraging plants for most of the year. Their main food is the meat of polar animals, including whales, seals, polar bears, reindeer and seabirds, but they can still hunt healthily.
When we discuss the diet of Eskimos, I can get to know them briefly first. In fact, Eskimo, which we often say, is a derogatory term (but it is still used in many countries now). For a long time, it was translated as "people who eat raw meat", but now some people think it should be translated as "people who wear snowshoes".
No matter how translated, these special ethnic groups around the Arctic Circle don't like this name. They prefer to call themselves Inuit, which can be translated as "real people".
Legend: Leather Armor of Eskimos
The origin of Eskimos
Under the special natural environment in the Arctic, the life of Eskimos is destined to be completely different from ours.
As many people think, Eskimos are a group that eats raw meat. There is not much dry wood to make a fire in the Arctic, so it is necessary to eat raw meat for living here.
But, as they call themselves (real people), from the genetic level, they are not much different from us, let alone "mutant humans".
In the Neolithic Age (5,111 to 12,611 years ago), the ancestors of Eskimos came to this extremely cold place, and their culture can be traced back at least 5,111 years ago.
For thousands of years, they had little contact with the outside world. It was not until the mid-19th century that their unique daily life, diet and health were recorded simply.
Of course, the early records are dominated by some "myths", such as Eskimos who are very healthy, good at sports and have no heart disease.
Today, there are almost 183,111 Eskimos living in the Arctic Circle, who are divided into different ethnic groups by region. But as far as living habits are concerned, it has completely approached the west since the 21th century.
Legend: Eskimos have significant Asian ancestry
As can be seen from the above picture, they look particularly like us in China.
It's true that the two main groups of Eskimos-the Yupik people in Siberia and the Eskimo-Aleutian-speaking North Americans-have significant Asian ancestry, and 43% of their DNA has something in common with one or a group of ancient Asian peoples of unknown origin.
However, we can't climb relatives randomly. It remains to be verified whether one of our ancient ethnic groups went north to become Eskimos. Some people think that they are descendants of Yin Shang, which can be ruled out, because the time is not right, and the origin of Eskimos is much earlier than that of Yin Shang.
Compared with the origin of Eskimos, scientists are more concerned about how they adapt to such an environment, which is the most extreme place on the earth. How do they keep healthy by enduring the low temperature of tens of degrees below zero and basically not eating vegetables?
How do Eskimos get vitamins? They eat them raw.
Traditional Eskimos hunt animals for at least 11 months every year. Their hunting list includes almost all animals in the Arctic Circle, and animals are their main food source. Only in summer can they collect some plant foods, such as berries, grass, tubers, roots, stems and seaweed.
As we said before, the Eskimos' eating habits are almost the same as those of westerners. Before writing this article, I visited some forums. Many Eskimos said that they rarely hunt because young people have lost their hunting skills, but they still like to eat raw meat, but they don't add any seasoning as we thought. Fruits and vegetables are really "luxury" for them because they are too expensive.
Even though modern Eskimos still have many ancient eating habits, if we want to discuss the particularity of their diet, it is the traditional Eskimos who are representative, and then I will talk about the traditional Eskimos.
Although humans are omnivores, we don't have many animal foods, which are basically plant foods, while Eskimos are just the opposite.
Being highly carnivorous, they can't get enough carbohydrates to meet the energy requirements of body operation, but the liver can decompose protein through gluconeogenesis and provide energy.
In 1971s, the research on the Eskimos found that their livers were extremely huge, which may be the most remarkable change of their bodies for "eating meat".
In addition, they also have a lot of urine, which is the result of their bodies to remove gluconeogenic waste.
Although they seldom eat plant food, their carbohydrate intake is much higher than we thought, which is attributed to their eating methods.
Legend: Fermented seal
For example, they have a delicious food-Kiviak, which I prefer to call "fermented seal". It is said that this delicious food is a hard dish that is served only when entertaining distinguished guests.
Put hundreds of seabirds (the kind with no feathers pulled out) into the whole seal skin and seal it. In order to prevent parasites from entering, they will coat the seal skin with thick grease, and then let the seabirds rot and ferment, which can ferment some protein into carbohydrates.
Vitamins and minerals usually come from plants, but as we said before, Eskimos don't get scurvy, so they eat it raw.
Vitamins A and D exist in the oil and liver of cold-water fish and mammals, while vitamin C can be obtained from reindeer liver, kelp, auricularia auricula and seal brain.
Vitamin C in animals will be destroyed by cooking, but these foods are eaten raw, so the vitamin C contained in them will be preserved.
Are Eskimos really healthy?
Many people think that Eskimos who live in extreme environments have excellent physical fitness. In fact, from the aspect of nutrient intake, they may not be as powerful as they thought.
The first problem of eating raw meat is parasite infection. About 12% of the elderly Eskimos are infected by a parasite called trichinosis. In most cases, this parasitic infection will not cause symptoms, but it will lead to disease and death.
Although vitamins and minerals can be obtained, they are limited after all. In addition, the Arctic will enter the extreme night for half of the time, so vitamin D is very scarce, which leads to their serious osteoporosis. Archaeology also found that ancient Eskimos also had this situation.
Because of the unbalanced diet, Eskimos' health problems are far more than these, but we have to admit that they are powerful, so we can say that they have broken through the limit of human existence.
Finally
Eskimos still live in the Arctic, but most of them already have a fixed residence, heating and driving around in comfortable SUVs.
However, their ancestors managed to survive in a challenging environment, which is enough to change our understanding of ourselves. The potential of human beings is even greater than we thought.