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Whenever I hear about disadvantaged North Koreans, it confuses me how they can survive- Some of these people say they had never eaten any other food besides gro

by drcode 11y ago

Whenever I hear about disadvantaged North Koreans, it confuses me how they can survive- Some of these people say they had never eaten any other food besides ground corn, even rice was an unobtainable luxury. How is it possible for a person with that type of diet to remain alive, from just a pure medical/physiological standpoint?

deleted 11y ago
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cryoshon 11y ago
There is a rationing system for rice and corn. It's highly unlikely that this is enough food to live on, so people probably turn to the black market for food-- but even that is probably quite thin, and extremely expensive. Eating edible grasses/herbs (even ferns), very weak bone-based soup/tea, gutter fish, frogs, roadkill, rice roots/tubers, tree bark (the NKs have been known to make pine bark "cake"), wild mushrooms, oysters/clams (if near the ocean), wild berries/fruits, lichen, bugs, rats, wild hemp (extremely nutrient rich and unregulated in NK), and sparrows, all of which are plentiful in NK. Knowing Koreans, they probably also have family gardens where they grow garlic and shallots (relatively easy to do), provided that they can retain viable seeds. I'd imagine that these private gardens are frequently stolen from by other hungry people, so they may be clandestine a lot of the time. No kimchi, though-- they can't grow the cabbage. You see this kind of food pyramid a lot during famines-- most recently, during the Cambodian genocide but also during the Great Leap Forward in China and the Holodomor in Ukraine. Scavenging low-density calorie sources from wherever, with increasingly lowered standards for what constitutes food. The problem becomes when effectively everyone is scavenging, which leads to sparse finds and increased calorie usage during harvesting. I assume they have been in this state of extremely scarce scavengeables for years now. There's effectively no access to dairy items or fresh fruits from what I can tell. This probably results in near-endemic calcium deficiency, and is supported by their tragically reduced heights and high infant mortality. During the last NK famine in the 90s, there were widespread rumors of abduction of children for the purpose of cannibalism, and people were told not to eat meat unless they knew the source. It's tremendously sad.
- ericjang 11y ago
  This is fascinating - do you know what books/articles I can read to learn more about NK diets?
  - cryoshon 11y ago
    My informed conjecture about NK diets is based off of a few survivor accounts from expats and a lot of background information about NK that I've picked up over the years, paired with a lot of information I learned about various other famines via Wikipedia and college. I can't suggest any specific books or articles though-- too many articles to list, and I wouldn't remember what factoid came from which article anyway. In general, I just ask a question to myself, then use the internet to find the answer. If you want related books to help think about what sorts of things happen during these times, I'd start with Maus. It's not at all related to NK, but it captures the desperation and ingenuity of long term crisis.
smacktoward 11y ago
The short answer: it isn't possible. The infant mortality rate in North Korea is more than six times higher than it is in the South, and life expectancy at birth is ten years shorter. (Data: http://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/apr/08/south-korea-v-north-korea-compared http://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/apr/08/south-...)
jkot 11y ago
Look into history, we have this sort of luxuries only last few hundred years. Exclusive diet on corn must be supplemented with salt. Also some of them might have chicken or small garden at home, but wont admit it, because it could be illegal or whatever.

by drcode 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

cryoshon 11y ago

There is a rationing system for rice and corn. It's highly unlikely that this is enough food to live on, so people probably turn to the black market for food-- but even that is probably quite thin, and extremely expensive. Eating edible grasses/herbs (even ferns), very weak bone-based soup/tea, gutter fish, frogs, roadkill, rice roots/tubers, tree bark (the NKs have been known to make pine bark "cake"), wild mushrooms, oysters/clams (if near the ocean), wild berries/fruits, lichen, bugs, rats, wild hemp (extremely nutrient rich and unregulated in NK), and sparrows, all of which are plentiful in NK. Knowing Koreans, they probably also have family gardens where they grow garlic and shallots (relatively easy to do), provided that they can retain viable seeds. I'd imagine that these private gardens are frequently stolen from by other hungry people, so they may be clandestine a lot of the time. No kimchi, though-- they can't grow the cabbage. You see this kind of food pyramid a lot during famines-- most recently, during the Cambodian genocide but also during the Great Leap Forward in China and the Holodomor in Ukraine. Scavenging low-density calorie sources from wherever, with increasingly lowered standards for what constitutes food. The problem becomes when effectively everyone is scavenging, which leads to sparse finds and increased calorie usage during harvesting. I assume they have been in this state of extremely scarce scavengeables for years now. There's effectively no access to dairy items or fresh fruits from what I can tell. This probably results in near-endemic calcium deficiency, and is supported by their tragically reduced heights and high infant mortality. During the last NK famine in the 90s, there were widespread rumors of abduction of children for the purpose of cannibalism, and people were told not to eat meat unless they knew the source. It's tremendously sad.

ericjang 11y ago
This is fascinating - do you know what books/articles I can read to learn more about NK diets?
- cryoshon 11y ago
  My informed conjecture about NK diets is based off of a few survivor accounts from expats and a lot of background information about NK that I've picked up over the years, paired with a lot of information I learned about various other famines via Wikipedia and college. I can't suggest any specific books or articles though-- too many articles to list, and I wouldn't remember what factoid came from which article anyway. In general, I just ask a question to myself, then use the internet to find the answer. If you want related books to help think about what sorts of things happen during these times, I'd start with Maus. It's not at all related to NK, but it captures the desperation and ingenuity of long term crisis.

smacktoward 11y ago

The short answer: it isn't possible. The infant mortality rate in North Korea is more than six times higher than it is in the South, and life expectancy at birth is ten years shorter. (Data: http://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/apr/08/south-korea-v-north-korea-compared http://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2013/apr/08/south-...)

jkot 11y ago

Look into history, we have this sort of luxuries only last few hundred years. Exclusive diet on corn must be supplemented with salt. Also some of them might have chicken or small garden at home, but wont admit it, because it could be illegal or whatever.