Did you know… The story of Paulo the Eskimo?

 This is the story of Paulo the Eskimo, who has the astonishing particularity of eating exclusively animal products and being in great shape. Paulo the Eskimo lives in Greenland, he’s an Inuit.

It’s seems to defy the laws of nature. While many studies show that vegetables fats are better for your health than animals fat. Paulo, who eats exclusively animal products, is in good shape! 

He knows neither heart attack, norcardiovascular problems. It’s not that Paulo doesn’t want to eat fruits and vegetables or olive oil, but have you ever tried to grow olive trees or fruit trees on the ice floe? 

Paulo wonders if it’s not his Inuit genes which protect himself…Then, he calls a friend, a Danish researcher, named Dyerberg to help him to understand. 

The latter decides to do a study to compare the rate of cardiovascular disease of the Inuit from Greenland, to those, of their cousins who moved, and now live in Denmark or Copenhagen. 

The study makes clear conclusions: Inuit living in Denmark do not have the same iron constitution as Inuit living in Greenland, since they have the same rate of heart problems as other Danes. So, it’s not the fact of being Inuit that protects them but the Inuit menu. 

What can we learn from this story? 

The Inuit (like other civilizations, such as the Cretans, for example) have know how to design culinary traditions over the centuries that are in tune with both their environment and their health. They have learned to exploit the particular resources of each land, to put them at the service of their own physiology. Resistance to disease is therefore not in the genes but in the food that stimulates the good genes. 

 To go further :

Consult the scientific study « The Composition of Food Consumed by Greenland Eskimos » written by H. O. Bang, J. Dyerberg and N. Hjørne (1976) 

You can read too, the book of Pierre Weil “Fat Planet”   © Jerry Hollens