One of the friends suggesting Mongolia as a destination for my travels told me when observing that I'm a vegetarian: „But you know that the Mongols are great meat-eaters – you'll have a hard time getting something to eat.“ As it turned out, it was as easy as in Tibet 25 years ago, when someone had warned me much alike; but vegetarinism in Mongolia is an own story. With long winters and a meat oriented diet, how can the Mongols get enough vitamin C? The easy answer would be: like all omnivor humans in the world.
Let's take the issue even further. How did the Inuit get their vitamin C, let's say 100 years ago? I was thinking of berries, the stomach with stomach contents of reindeer, organ meats, which all may be true, but still leaving a gap, which could be closed with the subcutaneous fat of the narwhal, which is rich in vitamin C. The narwhal (or narwhale) is “is a medium-sized toothed whale that possesses a large "tusk" from a protruding canine tooth” [1]. Such a tusks was easily thought of as the horn of a unicorn in medieval times.
If we talk about Mongols? Whom are we talking about? The modern city dweller, the modern nomad, Mongols of the past? Nearly 70% of Mongolia's population lives in cities; within the past 60 years the proportion has nearly doubled [2]. And in the cities, people go to the supermarket or minimarket, as I'll show later. What about the nomads? People, the nomads have cars and motorbikes! Mongolia is divided into provinces or aimags (аймаг) and these have districts or sums (cум) and there you'll find minimarkets. On the average you should find such a store within 40 km.
So let's concern us more with the romantic life of Mongolia's nomads in the past. It must have been a harsh life with extrem cold conditions. Meat is eaten more during winter and mostly cooked and not grilled, the Mongolian BBQ is a newer invention and without tradition. The major part of the Mongol diet has been dairy products like butter, buttermilk, milk, qurut or dried milk curd [3]. And they gathered berries like sea buckthorn, blue-, black-, silverberries, herbs, wild vegetables, roots, tubers, and mushrooms.
Airag (айраг) also known as kumis is fermented mare's milk [4]. Most people are interested in the contents of alcohol in airag, which is 1-3%. I am interested if airag is a source for vitamin C. And yes it is. According to one source there are 15 mg vitamin C per 100 ml airag [5]. Another source from Kazakhstan measured 9.45 mg / 100 ml [6]. So airag contributes to the supply of vitamin C.
So, vitamin C isn't really an issue. If you like a condensed view on what “the average Mongol” eats, there is an answer on the net [7]. If you compare Mongolia to Germany or the USA you won't find much differences [8]. Rural and urban nutrition differs in a surprising fact: “the rural population eats more sugar and sugar products” [7].
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal
[2] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=MN
[3] https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1451/food--drink-in-the-mongol-empire/
[4] More on airag or kumis here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis
[5] https://www.latequina.it/de/stutenmilch/zusammensetzung-stutenmilch.html
[6] https://p.ayu.edu.kz/documents/3f92ae36-f011-42a6-90f3-1d1cc5f3b109_201008%20%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%81%20%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0%202019.pdf
[7] https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-dietary-sources-of-vitamin-C-in-Mongolian-cuisine-It-seems-very-meat-heavy
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption
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