Chapter 661: Fresh Pickled Puffin
Why eating staple foods will reduce the demand for vitamin C? In fact, it all starts with a "slag receptor".
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and is necessary for collagen formation.
Collagen, in turn, is the main component of the body's connective tissue, which is essential for the structure and support of the body, including blood vessels.
Therefore, when there is a lack of vitamin C, as long as there is a slight external pressure, the blood may seep out of the blood vessel walls and cause bleeding, which is scurvy.
Once you suffer from scurvy , you may experience bleeding gums, loose teeth, difficulty in healing wounds, and joint pain.
In fact, there is a "competitive relationship" between the absorption of glucose and vitamin C.
In the 1970s, John T., professor emeritus at the University of Washington, proposed his glucose-ascorbic acid antagonism, or GAA theory, which states that elevated glucose levels in the body prevent vitamin C from entering cells and exerting its effects.
This is because glucose and vitamin C have similar chemical compositions and they enter cells through the same "Glut-1 receptor".
Glut-1 receptors prefer glucose to vitamin C, which means that once there is a "competition" opportunity, it will choose sugar instead of vitamin C.
Bifang gave a long explanation, and finally put it in layman's terms: "In other words, this receptor is quite vain. When it sees something good, it will kick away the lesser ones."
[Got it, scumbag receptor! ]
[Facts aside, is there nothing wrong with vitamin C? ]
【It’s just this taste! 】
The main source of glucose is carbohydrates, so if you don't consume carbohydrates, your demand for vitamin C will naturally not be high. The reason why sea sailors are prone to scurvy is because they eat too much black bread.
Thinking of this, Bifang took another bite of fish, took a sip, and spit out a fishbone.
Bifang had long forgotten what grass tasted like. It was like something taken out of the memory palace, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and then blasted with a flamethrower to turn into sieved powder.
That thing is truly a purely painful memory, with an earthy smell mixed with the smell of dry grass and a texture like ice chips. It is far less delicious than the fatty food I have now. It is as if all the cells in my body that had entered a state of low metabolism came alive in an instant and resumed working.
River fish has a muddy smell compared to seafood, especially when eaten raw, but in Bifang's mouth at this time, it has become an extremely rare delicacy.
At least it's better than Kiwiak, the traditional Inuit delicacy.
Thinking of this, Bifang added something else.
"In fact, my description just now is not completely accurate. The Inuit do not eat all raw meat. More often, they eat a kind of raw meat that has been matured. That is, a naturally fermented food without any processing. It is called kiwiak, which means 'pickled puffins'."
"Peoples living at high latitudes have a similar custom of eating raw meat because of food shortages, especially green vegetables and other sources of vitamins. On the one hand, it is because of fuel shortages, and on the other hand, it is to supplement vitamins. However, raw meat is not easy to preserve, especially in summer, so they mostly eat fermented raw meat."
For the Inuit, living on Greenland is actually not an easy thing, otherwise there would not be cases of freezing to death in igloos.
Therefore, every spring and summer, they would go out hunting and collect food to last them the entire winter. This was a necessary process. If they failed to do so, they would most likely freeze to death in the winter.
No one will come to help you, because most people are struggling to survive. It’s not that they don’t want to help, but they don’t have the energy to help. Even if they do have the energy, how long can they help?
Greenland's ice and snow are indeed conducive to food preservation, but the temperature can sometimes reach above zero. It's fine to keep it for a week, but it will inevitably rot after a while, so it can only be fermented artificially.
Fermentation and decay are two different things. The former is the process of beneficial bacteria utilizing organic matter, which is beneficial to the human body and may even make things more nutritious. The latter is the process of harmful bacteria multiplying and the food cannot be eaten.
"For example, the famous traditional Swedish delicacy canned herring is made from slightly rotten and fermented herring."
"The Inuit's Kiwiak is a bit more rough. The preparation method of this food is very complicated and takes a long time to complete. At least it is definitely not something I can make in the 100 days of survival."
"To put it simply, the preparation method of this food is to put the petrel's body into the seal's body without removing the hair or internal organs. It is soaked in the seal's gastric juice, sutured and sealed with seal fat."
"Then the seal is buried in the permafrost and allowed to ferment for two to three years before being dug out. The seal's stomach is then cut open, the seabird is taken out and eaten directly."
In terms of production techniques, it is actually still raw meat, because it has not been roasted at any high temperature and the protein itself is not denatured.
"Because the feathers don't ferment, they will maintain the original shape of the seabird, and you won't even see any changes. You can imagine what the cost of that kind of food is like.
[Fuck, is this something that humans eat? ]
[Too much effort…]
[I bought canned herring once, the taste is unforgettable]
Seeing a kind of wailing in the barrage of comments in the live broadcast room, Bifang chuckled.
"There are actually two ways to eat it. The first is to pull out the bird's tail and suck out the fermented and decomposed internal organs from its mouth. I heard that it tastes like bran and natto, as well as a fermented mixture."
"The second way to eat it is to spread the contents of the bird's stomach on barbecue."
With the development of human history, the custom of eating cooked meat has taken root among the Inuit. With the availability of fresh vegetables, the chance of obtaining vitamins from raw meat has decreased. They then use pickled puffins as a seasoning to spread on barbecued meat.
Hearing this, everyone was dumbfounded.
I thought canned herring was the best in the world, but I didn’t expect there would be an even more powerful food?
The way to eat it is even more raw!
[Not processing, it means there is feces...]
[Birds’ intestines are different from those of other animals. If they have it, they should just poop. It should be fine.]
[It’s too strong. I feel like vomiting.]
[ I just happened to be eating, woooooo]
It is hard for the water friends to believe that humans actually eat this kind of food, but for the Inuit, it is a rare delicacy that can provide them with vitamins that are urgently needed in the Arctic region.
This is a forced adaptation of human beings to their living environment. It is impossible to expect it to be delicious.
Bifang had never tasted canned herrings, but he thought it would definitely not taste good, so he didn't dare to try it easily.
His sense of smell was much more sensitive than that of an average person, and he was afraid that he might faint if he smelled it.
