Claim 5
That a man can live and enjoy good health for a year or many years on a purely flesh or muscle-meat diet.
The packers' much heralded Stefansson stunt of living a year on an exclusive meat diet was a discreditable fake. Stefansson did not live on a meat diet, but on a diet consisting of one-fifth protein and four-fifths fat (caloric intake). When compelled against his protest to eat steaks and chops, he was made very ill with acidosis within two days, vomiting and purging so violently that he was compelled to make a complete and immediate change. Prof. Newburgh of our State University stated that Stefansson ate no more real muscle meat than the average man usually eats. The Stefansson experiment proved but one thing, namely, that a man even when accustomed to a meat diet, cannot live on lean meat alone for more than two days without becoming ill.
Dr. Newburgh produced nephritis, or acute inflammation of the kidneys, in rats by feeding them exclusively on meat for a few weeks.