Rabbit hunger

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Rabbit hunger , also called rabbit wasting , is a form of malnutrition . It occurs when the diet consists primarily of lean meat (e.g. rabbits or snowshoe hare ) and additional stress factors such as cold and drought prevail. Symptoms include diarrhea, headache, fatigue, low blood pressure, low pulse, and vague discomfort. In addition, there is a feeling of hunger that can only be satisfied by taking in fat or carbohydrates.

Possible mechanisms

The pathomechanism that leads to rabbit hunger is not yet fully understood. However, the following factors play an essential role:

  • Dangerous amount of protein : A person's liver cannot use a sudden increase in protein levels to more than 200 to 300 g of protein per day, and the kidneys are also limited in their ability to remove urea (a by-product of protein breakdown) from the bloodstream . This can lead to harmful levels of amino acids , ammonia, or urea in the blood. This danger arises above all if one increases the protein intake significantly without sufficient changeover time. Because the human metabolism can only gain around 17 kJ of energy per gram of protein, 419 g of protein are required to cover the basic needs of a 70 kg person - more than the liver or kidneys can use or cope with without slow adaptation.
  • Calorie deficit : A 19 to 30-year-old man who does one hour of moderate hard work per day (for example, brisk walking while hunting) requires 12,500 kJ / day of energy. Raw meat from wild rabbits contains 456 kJ of energy per 100 grams. A grown man would have to eat 2.6 kg of rabbit meat every day to meet his energy needs with rabbit meat alone. However, that much meat can only be obtained from eight medium-sized wild rabbits. This means a considerable amount of effort when hunting.

Descriptions

The anthropologist and polar researcher Vilhjálmur Stefánsson (1879–1962) described rabbit hunger as follows:

“The people who live on the bubbles of hunted animals are the happiest in the hunter's life because they never suffer from hunger for fat. This problem is worst in North America with the Indians, who depend on rabbits, the leanest of prey. They develop an extreme hunger for fat known as rabbit hunger. Rabbit eaters, unless they can get fat from another source such as beaver, moose, or fish, will experience diarrhea, headaches, dejection, and vague discomfort within a week. If there are enough rabbits to hunt, people will eat rabbits until their bellies burst - no matter how much they eat, they will never feel full. "

Stefansson also wrote that starving rabbits rarely leads to death, because North American residents know the dangers of fat-free diets and take timely action. North American Indians know, for example, the long-lasting, fat and protein-rich pemmican . In contrast to starvation , in which the appetite is largely lost after a while , with rabbits hunger the feeling of hunger is incessantly present, but combined with nausea and diarrhea . Stefánsson also coined the English term rabbit starvation .

In the introduction to Alden Todd's book Abandoned: The Story of the Adolphus Greely Arctic Expedition 1881–1884 , Stefánsson describes rabbit hunger as the main problem of the 25-person Greely expedition. Only six people survived this trip. Stefansson also mentions cannibalism in this matter - no one was able to satisfy their hunger by eating the lean meat of deceased expedition members.

Charles Darwin wrote in his travel journal, The Voyage of the Beagle :

“We were here able to buy some biscuit. I had now been several days without tasting anything besides meat: I did not at all dislike this new regimen; but I felt as if it would only have agreed with me with hard exercise. I have heard that patients in England, when desired to confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet, even with the hope of life before their eyes, have hardly been able to endure it. Yet the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, touches nothing but beef. But they eat, I observe, a very large proportion of fat, which is of a less animalized nature; and they particularly dislike dry meat, such as that of the Agouti. Dr. Richardson also, has remarked, 'that when people have fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire for fat becomes so insatiable, that they can consume a large quantity of unmixed and even oily fat without nausea:' this appears to me a curious physiological fact. "

“We were able to buy some cookies here. For several days I had eaten nothing but meat: I had nothing against this new form of nutrition; but it felt like she had only adapted to me through rigorous practice. I have heard of patients in England who, if they were to eat exclusively animal foods, could barely hold out, even if their lives depended on it. The gauchos of the pampas, on the other hand, only eat beef for months. But, as I have observed, they eat a very large amount of fat, which is less animal-like; and especially they abhor dry meat, such as that of agouti . Dr. Richardson also noted, 'When people are fed only lean meat for a long time, the cravings for fat become so insatiable that they can ingest large amounts of unmixed and even oily fat without nausea': this is a strange physiological fact to me . "

In a clinical trial, Vilhjálmur Stefánsson and Karsten Andersen ate meat exclusively for a year in New York . Both of them tolerated this diet without any problems. However, Stefánsson developed intestinal problems in the form of diarrhea when his diet was low in fat for three days and had a protein content of 45% in the nutritional value. Then the fat content was increased again so that the protein content of the nutritional value was only 20% for two days and then 25%. The bowel problems then disappeared.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marvin Harris : Taste and Reluctance: The Riddles of Food Taboos. Klett-Cotta, 2005, ISBN 3-608-94412-5 , p. 39. Restricted preview in the Google book search
  2. ^ CH Vanderwolf: The Evolving Brain. Springer, 2007, ISBN 0-387-34230-3 , p. 38. Restricted preview in the Google book search
  3. ↑ Staffan Lindeberg: Food and Western Disease: Health and Nutrition from an Evolutionary Perspective. John Wiley & Sons, 2009, ISBN 1-444-31718-0 , p. 41. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  4. ↑ "Estimated Energy Requirements" , Canada's Food Guide.
  5. ↑ Sarah Egert, Ursel Wahrburg: The great Wahrburg / Egert calories & nutritional table. Georg Thieme Verlag, 2011, ISBN 3-830-46068-6 , p. 34. Limited preview in the Google book search
  6. Jump up ↑ D. Carter, A. Harestad, FL Bunnell: Status of Nuttall's Cottontail in British Columbia. Wildlife Branch, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Park; Wildlife Working Report No. WR-56; March 1993
  7. ^ S. Fallon: Nasty, Brutish and Short? ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The Ecologist . Volume 29, Number 1, 1999, pp. 20-27. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / exacteditions.theecologist.org
  8. ↑ Kerry G. Brock, George M. Dicks, Jr.: The Hunter-Gatherer Within: Health and the Natural Human Diet. Chapter 6: Proteins: The Body's Building Blocks. BRIT Press, 2013, ISBN 1-889-87840-5 , p. 60. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  9. ^ George Edgar Folk, Mary A. Folk: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the Development of Arctic Science. University of Iowa, 1984, p. 135.
  10. ↑ Organic Living Journal Volumes 62–80, p. 45 ( [1] )
  11. ^ Charles Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle. Chapter 7: Buenos Ayres to St. Fe. ISBN 1-616-40109-5 , p. 130. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  12. ↑ Vilhjalmur Stefansson: Not by Bread Alone . ISBN 1-635-61725-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  13. ↑ Walter S.McClellan, Eugene F. Du Bois: Prolonged meat diets with a study of kidney function and ketosis. (PDF; 1.5 MB) In: J Biol Chem. Volume 87, 1930, pp. 651-668.