Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

Whole Diets 235

It is also interesting as a counterweight to Hindhede and other nutritionists who

plump for the excellent lacto-vegetarian diet. There are other excellent diets, and the

whole-carcass one of the Polar Eskimos is one of them.

From the far north our next jump is to the Island of Tristan da Cunha in the South
Atlantic.

The people of this island are people of our own race living on the products of sea and

soil, most of them have perfect teeth which last them all their lives...

Mr James R. A. Moore, LDS, RCS (Eng), visited the island in 1932 and again in

1937. In 1932 he examined 156 persons and 183 in 1937. Of the 3181 permanent
      teeth in the former year, there were 74 carious and of the 3906 in the latter year there
      were 179 carious.
      He speaks of the physique of the people as being good. They are well set up, clean
      and well nourished. The children are breast fed and are not weaned until at least one
      year old. Fish and potatoes are the staple diet, meat occasionally, milk and butter suffi-
      cient. Eggs form a big item of the island diet and are mainly Mollyhawk and penguin.
      Vegetables are not plentiful, but beetroot, lettuce, beans and onions are now being
      grown. Imported flour and sugar are regarded as luxuries, but they have been brought
      in to a greater extent latterly, which may account for the tendency of the teeth to dete-
      riorate.
      The fat in adequate amount is provided by rendering down the carcasses of young
      Mollyhawks and petrels and is used extensively for frying. Sea water is evaporated to
      provide salt.^5

It will be seen that the people of this island, also noted for their sound health,^6 have
a more varied diet than that of the Eskimo, though like them much of it is derived
from the sea. Eggs form a large part of their diet – one of the items condemned by
Hindhede. It is worth noting that a marked difference exists between the methods
of cooking adopted by the Tristan Islanders and the Hunza, for whereas the latter
cook everything together in one pot, the people of Tristan never partake of more
than one kind of food at the same time.
For our fourth example of a (once) superlatively healthy race, we must go to
the North American Indian of the pioneer days. Observation of these people since
they have been forced to live in reservations has been very carefully recorded.

All who observed the Indians in their primitive state agree that most of them were

exceptional specimens of physical development. With few exceptions, however, during

two generations, they have deteriorated physically. The reason for this is apparently

brought to light by a consideration of the kind of food to which they have restricted

themselves since they have lived on reservations.

There is no group of people with a higher incidence of tuberculosis than the non-

citizen Indian. As wards of the Government they have been provided with money and

land, but have in general shown little interest in agriculture. They have lived in idleness,