Reading up on rabbit starvation, aka fat starvation, where if you eat nothing but rabbit you still starve to death on account of how lean it is. The wiki on it quotes Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson as writing; “Some think a man will die sooner if he eats continually of fat-free meat than if he eats nothing, but this is a belief on which sufficient evidence for a decision has not been gathered in the North.”
Do we have sufficient evidence for a decision these days? If I were suffering from this affliction and could only eat rabbit meat, would I live longer if I didn’t eat at all or just ate the rabbit?
The thing that kills you in rabbit starvation is the excess amino acids/protein that build faster than you can metabolize or excrete them. The Wikipedia page says 220-300 grams, which is 800-1200 calories before you get to that level.
This isn’t a diet that you can live on indefinitely, but if you ate a small enough amount of rabbit each day to stay below your metabolic limits, you should clearly outlive someone who has no caloric intake at all.
On the other hand, “eating continually” would certainly put you over the safe limit and you’d essentially poison yourself.
Not rabbit per se. It’s that the liver and kidneys can only digest and excrete protein at a certain rate. If you eat something very high protein and low in other calories (fat and carbs), then you exceed your limit for handling protein before you meet your need for calories. The excess builds up in your blood and (potentially) kills you before you feel full.
It’s not so different from other excesses. The liver can only metabolize one alcoholic drink per hour, so binge drinking all at once is more dangerous than sipping all afternoon.
Ha, that’s probably where I heard of it first. If Stephen has his facts right it sounds like you’d die quicker than if you ate nothing, on account of the consumption of the body’s resources needed to digest the protein? Is that right?
Hell, even too much water can potentially kill you. Moderation in all things, especially moderation.
I’ve heard to avoid this is to increase your fat consumption, by eating the brains as well. I’m pretty sure that was a les stroud (survivor man) piece of advice.