Since I am not a nutritionist, I checked a book on nutrition, which is co-authored by an M.D. and a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, and here are some excerpts of what it says about vitamin A:

Protein cannot be utilized by the body without vitamin A.

A deficiency of vitamin A may be apparent if dry hair or skin, dryness of the conjunctiva and cornea, poor growth, and/or night blindness is present. Other possible results of vitamin A deficiency include abscesses in the ears, insomnia, fatigue, reproductive difficulties, sinusitis, pneumonia, and frequent colds and other respiratory infections, skin disorders (including acne), and weight loss.

When food or supplements containing beta-carotene are consumed, the beta-carotene is converted into vitamin A in the liver.

I also looked up nephritis. Nephritis is defined in the dictionary as acute or chronic inflammation of the kidney caused by infection, degenerative process, or vascular diseases. The nutrition book I mentioned above also mentions Nephrotic syndrome, which I think is another term for nephritis. It is marked by edema (fluid retention), and excess protein in the urine. It can be caused by lesions of glomeruli (small structures inthe kidney made of capillaries) that become inflamed, or by chronic diseases such as diabetes or lupus.

I can find no mention of the overeating of lean meats causing nephritis or causing the depletion of vitamin A.

Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that can be found in animal livers, fish liver oils, and green and yellow fruits and vegetables. Foods that contain SIGNIFICANT amounts of vitamin A include apricots, asparagus, beet greens, broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, collards, dandelion greens, dulse, fish liver and fish liver oil, garlic, kale, mustard greens, papayas, peaches, pumpkin, red peppers, spirulina, spinach, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, turnip greens, watercress, and yellow squash. It is also present in a number of herbs.

I think that you would have to work pretty hard to avoid vitamin A in your diet, even in the wild. Unless you plan on removing all fats and oils from your food, or plan on eating their digestive systems, I think you could live quite well for quite some time. If you try the latter, you're on your own. <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Then again, if someone's goal is to lose weight while he is in the wild, he should eat an animal's digestive system for breakfast every day, preferably raw, and he should have no problem losing as much weight as he wants. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />