# Eskimos and vitamins **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 1999, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268 "1999-07-29T19:13:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/1 "1999-07-29T19:13:00Z")
How did Eskimos get their vitamins? Specifically, the most common source of Vitamin C is citrus fruits…I know there must be others, but what did Eskimos eat in order to get the stuff? Also, isn’t Vitamin D mainly generated by sunlight reacting with the body? How did the Eskimos keep up Vitamin D levels during a several-month-long winter? (or does the human body keep high enough levels that people can last several months without additional Vitamin D?) * * * Chaim Mattis Keller [ckeller@schicktech.com](mailto:ckeller@schicktech.com) “Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.” – Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/2 "1999-07-29T20:02:00Z")
Citrus fruits aren’t the only source of Vitamin C; I believe they’re also present in fresh meat. As for Vitamin D, most fish are filled with the stuff. * * * [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/3 "1999-07-29T20:02:00Z")
I seem to remember from H.S. biology that they get their Vitamin D from the fish they eat and therefore are not dependant on sunlight. As for the Vitamin C. I dunno, your on your own there. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 1999, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/4 "1999-07-31T04:36:00Z")
Raw meat is a complete source of nutrition. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 1999, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/5 "1999-07-31T05:25:00Z")
Raw meat has no fiber ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 1999, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/6 "1999-07-31T07:31:00Z")
If what I read by Farley Mowat and what I remember form nutrition 1A is right, fish aren’t that important a source of winter food. Ok for protein and calories, but little fat or fat soluble vitamins, and difficult to obtain except for coastal tribes. The real secret IIRC were the livers and fat stores of polar mammals such as Caribou, seals and whales, I believe they had the ability to store vitamins that more temperate dwelling animals don’t. I’m really dragging the ole memory basement on this one though. This much I’m pretty sure of; if you want to gross out a vegetarian, show them a passage in Mowats’ “People of the Deer,” (I think), it describes an Eskimo smorgasbord that will make any major canivore a bit squeamish, Larry ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 1999, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/7 "1999-07-31T10:05:00Z")
Ivick: After a Necropsy i participated in a few years ago, nothing makes me squeamish anymore (We were carving up dead sealions, a dolphin, and various other things). Inuits also eat everything raw… Since they do not cook it, they don’t destroy the vitamins. I was watching a show about them, and when they hunt seals, they eat the blubber and choice pieces on the spot. And for those who are concerned about those “poor” animals, the Inuit try to kill the animals quickly so they dont suffer. * * * “Let me show you something that you’ve never seen before like a light im gonna shine on you forever is a word i dont often get to say but if you say it loud enough i’ll say it too” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 1999, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimos-and-vitamins/2268/8 "1999-08-02T14:42:00Z")
Fiber is the opposite of a “nutrient”.