Soapbox Microbes

A Greenland explorer will eat only decaying seal for a month

Researchers think fermentation helped Inuit thrive only on meat. A monthlong trek tests that

Greenland explorer Mike Green follows an almost all meat traditional Inuit diet while traveling.

When explorer Mike Keen, pictured, kayaked across Greenland a few years ago, researchers tracked changes to his gut microbiome as he ate a meat-heavy Inuit diet. Now, researchers are observing changes to his gut as he skis across the country, eating only fermented seal meat.

Mike Keen

By Sujata Gupta

This spring, British explorer and chef Mike Keen will spend roughly a month skiing across Greenland with a sled dog.