wedrifid comments on Announcing the Quantified Health Prize - Less Wrong

50 Post author: Zvi 02 December 2011 06:01AM

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Comment author: JosephBuchignani 05 December 2011 05:58:08AM 0 points [-]

I went a month eating nothing but boiled rice, scallops and water. It was the highest energy/mood/libido diet I've ever tried, but I couldn't maintain weight because it tasted gross.

Comment author: wedrifid 05 December 2011 07:21:05AM 3 points [-]

I went a month eating nothing but boiled rice, scallops and water.

That's an impressive feat! Unfortunately it tells us only a little about whether scallops give you all the vitamins and minerals you need. From what I understand you will not experience much in the way of scurvy after just one month of being deprived of vitamin C, let alone get a clear picture of the long term results of any lack in the more subtle deficiencies!

I'd love to see some links too. I'd perhaps take for granted that scallops could give the basic minerals we require (seawater has most of the same salts that we need) but the vitamins I'd have expected to be a different story!

Comment author: JosephBuchignani 05 December 2011 08:22:37AM *  1 point [-]

I was driven to it by necessity, I have intraheptic cholestasis.

You aren't very familiar with the paleo literature. Conclusive evidence exists that human beings can consume just about any animal monotonically without suffering nutrient deficiency. Exceptions might be extremely simple animals like snails or maybe starfish that don't share enough similarity. But most seafood and land animals will work.

The major exception to this rule is that some animals don't have enough fat to sustain life, which leads to protein poisoning. The solution is to either eat more carbs or more fat from another source.

Vitamin C deficiency is impossible to contract while eating fresh meat. See polar expeditions for details. This is a problem with the "daily value" theory. Vitamin C is present in meat in far smaller amounts than in plants, but because of greater bioavailability, it is actually a better source than plant sources. As long as the meat is fresh.

I may put together all this at some point, with links etc. It's buried in my notes.