The idea of eating rotting meat sounds like a one-way ticket to the emergency room for a major stomach flu at best, but in the most extreme latitudes of the planet, it is a survival technique perfected over millennia. Now, explorer and chef Mike Keen a challenge has been proposed that defies Western physiology: feeding exclusively on decomposing seal for a month in Greenland. And all this to see how your microbiota adapts to this new diet and how grouper’social experiment‘.
More than rotten meat. When we talk about the diet that Keen will follow on his expedition, the automatic mental image is that of meat left out in the open without any type of control. However, there is a crucial nuance, since the traditional inuit practiceslike the kiviak or the igunaq They are not just random rotting meat, but have gone through a fermentation process.
What does it consist of? It is a controlled fermentation culturally, since for months these preparations undergo processes involving bacteria and very particular metabolites that science is just beginning to catalog.
This fermentation not only preserves food during the long, dark Arctic winters, but, according to the researchers’ hypothesis, it could be key to the survival of the Inuit and extract vital nutrients in a diet based almost exclusively on animal products, lacking the plant fiber that normally feeds our intestinal bacteria.
His secret. The scientific core of this type of diet is in our digestive system, since various studies have focused on the relationship between traditional fermented foods and the intestinal health of Arctic populations.
Here, a study published in Microbiome on the Inuit gut microbiome showed that this is highly dynamic over time and is deeply shaped by the intake of traditional foods. In this way, unlike populations like ours, where the Western diet homogenizes the bacteria in the intestine, for the Inuit there are unique signatures.
Centuries of history. Greenland’s dependence on seal meat is not a modern eccentricity, but a historical pillar. Historical records and isotopic analyzes have confirmed that even the Viking settlers in Greenland relied heavily on the seal for survival. It is a food that has been sustaining human life on the island for centuries.
However, replicating this type of diet without traditional ecological knowledge carries a lethal danger, since poorly preserved decomposing meat is microbiological Russian roulette. Without the exact temperature control, preparation and anaerobic sealing that recipes like igunaqmeat becomes a breeding ground for serious pathogens such as Salmonella either Listeria that cause pathological conditions very serious.
The experiment. By taking these foods, we hope to know exactly the metabolic adaptations that occur when these diets are taken and also to see how the microbiota changes when subjected to a 100% animal and fermented diet for a month. In order to reach clear conclusions, analyzes will be done on the feces, or blood, throughout this month of testing and also afterwards, to be able to have something clear about how its interior changes.
Images | DejaVu Designs at Magnific
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