The Real High Fat Diet

[helvella]

From The Guardian:

Ötzi’s last supper: mummified hunter's final meal revealed

Scientists say iceman ate ‘horrible-tasting’ high-fat meal of ibex before his murder 5,300 years ago

Ötzi the iceman filled his belly with fat before he set out on the ill-fated hunting trip that ended with his bloody death on a glacier in the eastern Alps 5,300 years ago, scientists say.

The first in-depth analysis of the hunter’s stomach contents reveal that half of his last meal consisted of animal fat, primarily from a wild goat species known as the Alpine ibex.

While researchers have previously studied remnants of food in Ötzi’s intestines, a more complete picture of his final feast was delayed because they could not find his stomach. It was finally located by a CT scan, tucked up under his ribcage near his shrunken lungs.

“It was surprising to see this extraordinarily high-fat diet,” said Frank Maixner at the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano, Italy. “He clearly knew that fat is a high-energy source and he really composed his diet to survive at high altitude.”

Rest of article here:

theguardian.com/science/201...

[marigold22]

I wish the important powers who try to rule our lives - NHS, government, NICE, BTA etc - would change their stance on fat. The brain is made of something like 80% fat so the 'recommended low fat diet' is a load of tosh. It's causing a lot of mental health problems, and probably other problems too.

[humanbean]

I can't understand why a high-fat meal of ibex would be described as "horrible tasting". An ibex is a kind of goat and people all over the world eat goats, so I can't see the big deal myself. I think that modern human tastes have become disturbed. I am convinced that in ancient human societies fat and organ meats such as liver would be more highly prized than muscle meat of the type we eat today. They would be more energy-dense and would contain far more in terms of nutrients than muscle does.

[helvella in reply to humanbean]

To be fair, one of the scientists involved didn't simply assume ... Maixner has tried ibex. He said the meat is not too bad, but struggled to find the words to encapsulate the experience of eating the animal’s subcutaneous fat. “The taste is really, well, it’s horrible,” he said. “And they had no salt at the time.”

Perhaps you are right and we all have disturbed taste.

[humanbean in reply to helvella]

Yes I did read that bit. But I'm pretty sure tastes must have changed and it probably wasn't disgusting to the man who ate it on the mountain.

I remember once reading that ancient Romans ate some kind of sauce made with the rotting (fermenting) entrails of fish and they loved the strong flavour. Now that is what I would class as disgusting.

[helvella in reply to humanbean]

I needed to look it up, but it is garum.

Not sure quite how far we really have moved? After all, isn't south-east Asian food, often containing generous amounts of fermented fish sauce, pretty popular?

I wonder what the Romans would have made of Marmite? Or saccharin.

Wiki has a quick and simple overview:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_...

[humanbean in reply to helvella]

That's the stuff!

The Romans made a similar condiment called either garum or liquamen.[3] According to Pliny the Elder, “garum consists of the guts of fish and other parts that would otherwise be considered refuse, so that garum is really the liquor from putrefaction.”[6]

Garum was made in the Roman outposts of Spain almost exclusively from mackerel by salting the scrap fish innards, and then sun fermenting the flesh until it fell apart, usually for several months. The brown liquid would then be strained, bottled, and sold as a condiment.

Yummy!

[helvella in reply to humanbean]

Suspect that Hákarl is more than a match for garum...

icelandmag.is/article/antho...

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

I watch a TV programmea few years ago in which people from different cultures volunterred to eat food from other cultures.The japanese man in it was horrified by stilton but the english man count cope withthe japanese rotten egg. The live catapillars were a challange to people too.

My concernt re eating goattype fat would be whether it was cooked or not.I love lamb fat and would imagine goat fat similar but I would not want to eat either raw.

[humanbean in reply to Hidden]

I think I might have seen that program - it was about "disgust" - how we evolved to feel disgust and why it is vital for keeping us alive.

[LAHs in reply to Hidden]

Good point. Stilton and Gorgonzola, YUM! Japanese raw fish, YUK!

Never really thought about it that way.

[helvella in reply to LAHs]

Some years ago, I went to a tiny sushi restaurant in London. They had many different things on menu including some described as "challenging". They were! But almost entirely the texture.

[marigold22 in reply to humanbean]

It actually astounds me nowadays at how fussy people are regarding their food. I eat to nourish myself, not particularly for taste. And the thought of eating donner kebab revolts me. My grandson absolutely refused to even put a teaspoonful of sauerkraut into his mouth! Yes, I agree, modern human tastes have become disturbed.

[Treepie]

My grandfather had a high fat diet but had a physically demanding job .

The iceman was undertaking a physically demanding task. Whilst cutting out as much fat as possible is bad perhaps having a great deal of fat is no longer necessary for sedentary occupations.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Dripping is now firmly back on the menu.

Butter, Coconut oil and olive oil too

Dripping

independent.co.uk/life-styl...

dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti...

[LAHs]

I have never followed the low fat mantra. When I want to lose a few pounds I go on the grapefruit diet. Amongst other things you start off with a big pile of bacon and eggs for breakfast and any veggies you cook with dinner can be swimming in butter. This diet really works and I believe proves the saying, "Fat burns fat". (If you are going to try it you must eat your grapefruit though - 1.5 per day.)