Whole Diets 233that could be eaten. There was no such thing as offal. They also made the carcasses
gamey by hanging for weeks and even months. In addition to their whole-carcass food
they had barley meal, unleavened barley bread, a few vegetables such as cabbages, pars-
nips and carrots.
They drank milk, beer, and, on festive occasions, brandy. But the main food was
animal, bird and fish.
The islanders numbered a few thousands, were of the same origin as the Icelanders,
and were, ‘in general, remarkably intelligent. They are extremely healthy, and live to a
great age, and an old man of ninety-three years lately rowed the governor’s boat nearly
ten miles.’ One danger they incurred was an epidemic catarrhal fever, such as we call
influenza, which ‘prevails after the arrival of the ships from Denmark in the spring’,
after the winter’s scarcity. It spreads rapidly and was sometimes fatal. Otherwise, ‘but
few diseases are prevalent amongst them’.
The inhabitants of Iceland offer a similar and even more interesting picture of carcass
diet. McCollum and Simmonds, in The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition (1929) summarize
the chief facts. ‘This island was settled in the 9th century by colonists from Ireland and
Scandinavia, who took with them cattle, sheep and horses. Their diet was practically car-
nivorous in nature for several hundred years. Martin Behaim (quoted by Burton), writing
of Iceland about 1500, stated: “In Iceland are found men of eighty years who have never
tasted bread. In this country no corn is grown, and in lieu, fish is eaten.”’
Burton, quoting Pearse, states that rickets and caries of the teeth were almost
unknown in Iceland in earlier times... The health conditions were good and dental car-
ies was unknown until after 1850. Stefansson exhumed 96 skulls from a cemetery dat-
ing from the 9th to the 13th centuries and presented them to Harvard University. They
have been described by Hooton (1918), who found no evidence of caries in any of
them. There were but three to four defective teeth in the entire series, and these had
suffered mechanical injury. During the last half century caries has steadily increased in
Iceland.
Modern Iceland had not the isolation of the period which Burton described. There
had been a great advance in civilization and population. Fifty per cent of the people now
live in towns or trading stations. There are four agricultural schools. Potatoes, turnips, and
rhubarb are cultivated. Iceland imports the trade foods, such as flour, sugar, preserved
fruits and tinned foods. Caries has become common, as have many other ailments.That this regrettable decline in health cannot be attributed to the change from
country to town life, is proved by a remarkable experiment carried out in Denmark
itself during World War I.
The blockade, following the entry of the USA into the war, put the Danes in a very
serious position. Professor Mikkel Hindhede, Superintendent of the State Institute of
Food Research, was made Food Adviser to the Danish Government to deal with it.
The problem that faced him was this; Denmark had a population of 3,500,000
human beings and 5,000,000 domestic animals. She was accustomed to import grains
from the US for both. There was now a shortage of grain foods.