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The book The Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson)
by exfatloss 3y ago
The book The Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhjalmur_Stefansson) describes how the Eskimos he lived with ate rotten fish all the time. It was a delicacy for them.
Kind of like we eat "rotten/spoiled" blue cheese and dry-aged beef.
- jojobas 3y agoNot just fish and not just Eskimo. Northern tribes rot whole deer, seal and even whale.
- exfatloss 3y agoInteresting. But yea, it seems our digestive systems can adapt to it pretty well, given that we've been doing this since long before doctors were around. I suppose the acid kills all the bacteria in the rotten meat unless you're super weak immune wise.
- jojobas 3y agoNot just that, there are toxins lethal to "normal" humans (i.e. cadaverine) that one can adapt to by eating small amounts as a child. Chukchi babies would get ever more rotten bones to suck on (i.e. pacifiers) presumably for that purpose.