Protein poisoning, also known as “rabbit hunger,” is a nutritional deficiency caused by consuming mostly lean meat with no other sources of nutrients. It can lead to health complications due to inadequate nutrients, stress, and lack of calories. It is rare in industrialized areas but can be a risk in remote communities during times of limited food availability. Patients may experience constant hunger, fatigue, headache, and diarrhea, and their blood pressure and heart rate may drop dangerously low. Indigenous peoples who rely heavily on meat-based diets with high fat content are at low risk of protein poisoning.
Protein poisoning is an unusual nutritional deficiency in which patients consume mostly lean meat, with no other sources of nutrients, and develop health complications as a result. This condition appears to be a combination of factors including not getting enough calories, receiving inadequate nutrients, and experiencing stress due to environmental factors such as very cold weather. Patients with access to health care and nutritional options rarely develop or die from protein poisoning, but it can be a risk in remote communities during times of limited food availability.
This condition is also known as “rabbit hunger,” a reference to the idea that communities that rely heavily on rabbit, a very lean meat, may be at risk of protein poisoning. Patients with protein poisoning get most of their nutrition from lean meat, usually because they survive hunting in the winter, when they cannot supplement their diet with plant foods. Often the victim actively seeks out food, consuming more calories than usual and therefore requiring more, even if he consumes less because the caloric value of lean meat is limited.
In patients with this condition, the body is not getting the nutrients it needs to function. The patient may experience a constant sense of hunger, even immediately after eating, until carbohydrates are ingested to balance the diet. The liver also becomes overloaded with protein and cannot process it as quickly as the patient can eat it. Patients may become fatigued and typically develop headache and diarrhea. Blood pressure and heart rate drop, sometimes dangerously low.
Historically, people who suffered from protein poisoning often consumed things like the liver of animals they hunted in an effort to deal with their hunger. This led to further complications, as patients developed vitamin A toxicity from eating too much liver. The problem for patients with this condition is not necessarily excess protein, but dietary imbalances that lead to an inability to function normally.
Most indigenous peoples who rely heavily on meat-based diets consume animals with a high fat content, such as whales and seals, and therefore are at low risk of protein poisoning because they receive more balanced nutrition. This condition can become a concern when communities are forced to rely on subsistence hunting of rabbits, deer and other lean animals in inclement weather where other sources of nutrition are not available. Rarely do people in industrialized areas develop protein poisoning from extreme diets; weight training and conditioning diets that rely on high protein content usually include precautions to eat a blend of meats and also consume some plants to prevent this problem.
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