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Icelandic Centenarian
Iceland has a lot of high VA foods available. Grain was not even available there when it was first settled and farming was difficult.
"The key to longevity is to stay clear of all modern healthfoods and stick to a strict diet of traditional Icelandic dishes of bread, meat or fish and potatoes, according to the third oldest person in Iceland."
"Guðrún told the local newspaper Morgunblaðið that she does her best to never eat fruits or vegetables. She admits that “once in a while” she might eat “very small portions” of cauliflower and cabbage. Bananas are the only fruits this centenarian is willing to taste. She also stays clear of food supplements and vitamin, as well as cod-liver oil."
"Guðrún told Morgunblaðið that she refuses to touch any “modern health foods”, sticking instead to traditional Icelandic home-cooked meals. Her favourite dish is Icelandic bread soup made with rúgbrauð and topped with whipped cream, as well as regular saltfish."
That's relatively low A actually
Quote from Guest on February 16, 2019, 5:02 amThat's relatively low A actually
Yeah that is what I was impressed by. She chooses to eat a low carotene diet and considering Iceland, a lower retinol diet.
I'm more and more convinced that fruits and vegetables should be seen as condiments to make starches, meats and fats more tasteful.
Her diet probably resembles the diet of the Sami people from the northern Scandinavian countries. The traditional Sami diet is based on reindeer meat, potatoes, and berries. Their diet is supplemented with bread, wheat groats, and oats. Studies show that the Sami people have lower rates of cancer than typical Scandinavians. They also typically have lower blood pressure even though their diet is higher in fat, protein, and boiled coffee. They use reindeer fat for cooking, and milk consumption is not very common. Their overall dairy consumption is very low. Their diet happens to be very low in Vitamin A and beta carotene, and not very high in Vitamin C.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2080452/
I'm bringing up this old thread because I was thinking about places like Iceland where historically they ate a lot of high VA foods namely dairy and seafood.
I felt there was some cognitive dissonance between reading about them doing ok on a diet high in dairy and seafood and what I've learned about VA.
They had to remain strong and healthy to survive in Iceland in the past so let's look at what they ate to see how it measures up in terms of VA.
https://nannarognvaldar.com/a-little-food-history/
The German cartographer Martin Behaim wrote this on his globe of 1492: “In Iceland are found men of eighty years who have never tasted bread. In this country no corn is grown, and instead fish is eaten.” The first part of his statement is certainly incorrect, bread was not that rare, but it certainly wasn’t everyday food for poorer people. They buttered their dried fish and ate it instead.
I used Cronometer to put together a similar dietary intake to what was eaten in medieval Iceland. Wild eggs, rams' testicles and sheep's head were all a part of their diet. This is a retinol heavy diet and it adds up 3897 IU of VA per day. It is said that they consumed cod liver oil and other marine fats so perhaps it was a bit higher than this for many people. I believe the wealthier people ate more butter and grain and less fish oils.
|
Description
|
Amount
|
Unit
|
||
|
Yogurt, Plain, Whole Milk
|
3
|
cup
|
||
|
Butter, Salted
|
2
|
oz
|
||
|
Lamb Roast, Leg, No Visible Fat Eaten
|
3
|
FDA Serving Size
|
||
|
Cod, Atlantic, Cooked
|
2
|
Serving (10 tbsp, cut pieces)
|
||
|
Rye Bread
|
1
|
medium slice - 5" x 4" x 1/2"
|
||
|
Cheese, Cheddar
|
3
|
oz
|
||
|
Eggs, Cooked
|
2
|
medium
|
||
|
Lamb, New Zealand, imported, testes, cooked, soaked and fried
|
1
|
× 3 oz
|
||
|
Goat head (barbacoa de cabeza de cabra seca)
|
1
|
cup
|
But then we read:
So what was used instead of grains? Two very important staples were fjallagrös or Iceland moss, which is not a moss but a type of lichen that grows in many Arctic regions, and söl or dulse, a seaweed that can be gathered at low tide around the North Atlantic.
In many regions porridge and other food made from it was served every day, sometimes for every single meal. It was used in bread, soups, puddings, blood sausage, and many other kinds of food, as well as being made into teas and potions for numerous ailments.
1 oz of dried Dulse has 9193 IU of VA. I suspect Iceland moss is high in carotenes too. This means the Icelandic diet would have been quite high in VA if someone was eating cod liver oil and dulse.
When I think of the old Icelandic diet I think of all the high retinol foods but unless they were consuming cod livers in quantities it looks like for many of them most of their VA could have come from plant foods.
The Icelandic centenarian above avoids cod liver oil, a popular food in Iceland and doesn't eat high carotene vegetables so she is not eating a high VA diet. The Icelandic people eating cod liver oil and dulse in the past probably only did so out of desperation and the wealthier ones probably ate more grain and mutton and probably used mutton fat and butter for fats.
It seems that the Icelandic diet was high in VA for many, perhaps it wasn't enough to cause major issues? Perhaps the lack of toxins like glyphosate in their diet allowed them to offload it quicker?
Looking at this information I came to the realization that for most of us, unless we took Accutane or a lot of VA capsules, most of the VA in our diet that led to toxicity probably came from carotenoids. How many people these days eat something like one carrot, a serving of spinach and a sweet potato as part of their diet over the course of a day? Plenty of health conscious people.
|
Description
|
Amount
|
Unit
|
||
|
Carrots, Raw
|
1
|
medium - 6" to 7" long
|
||
|
Spinach, Cooked from Fresh
|
1
|
FDA Serving Size
|
||
|
Sweet Potato, Baked
|
1
|
medium - 2" diameter x 5"
|
This would give you 41008 IU of VA!
While eating liver and cod liver oil is a major chore that most people don't enjoy how easy is it to eat carrots, spinach and sweet potatoes in comparison?
Interesting maybe there are genetic adaptation certain ethnicities handle VA from retinol different. Also, aren't they descendants of the vikings? Those guys are all very tall and built maybe their liver is bigger as well. Maybe that's the effect of eating more VA your body adapts becomes bigger over generations.
There were no other toxins back then maybe the cold helps deplete the VA as well they must have been always challenging their immune system with environment stressors but no pollution and other factors like today.
Nordic countries also suffer higher rates of autoimmune such osteoporosis, Alzheimer, depression ect