Here’s a new study of interest for this forum.
The Tsimane get most of their calories from complex carbohydrates high in fiber like plantain, corn, cassava, rice and bananas, supplemented with wild game and fish. Dr. Gurven has published detailed studies showing that they have exceptional cardiovascular health and almost no diabetes.
Any thoughts?
Regarding the Tsimane in particular (from the linked study in your snippet):
Apparently they are also mostly infected with helminths (worms) and there is some thought that it is the presence of these parasites that is providing them with anti-inflammatory protection.
“Rather than being considered an inflammatory risk for cardiovascular disease, helminth infection might be protective against the development of atherosclerosis.”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)31955-4/fulltext
Regarding the NYT article you referenced - it was a good read. One very interesting factor is that when people from these remaining hunter-gatherer societies move into towns and adopt modern eating and activity patterns, they develop the same diseases that western civilizations do.
There is SOMETHING in the foods that we eat, and perhaps the loss of metabolic benefit from reduced constant but moderate physical activity, that causes this.
For much of human history, we didn’t choose the diet… we simply ate what was available and that has worked for 200,000 years. I believe we can adapt to just about any type of diet and be healthy, as long as it excludes processed sugar. Processed food (mainly sugar and oil) is the root of our dietary downfall.
It is still a low unprocessed carb, low sugar diet consisting of Whole Foods for lack of a better term hence “exceptional cardiovascular health” and they probably don’t eat pre-packaged foods, but that could change though?
They also have intestinal hook-worms and other parasites[1] and a more genetically diverse[1] gut flora biome and if I am not mistaken which may be an ancestral part of our missing gut bug flora biome; some people purposely eat these hook worm parasites for IBS and other gastrointestinal issues! If they don’t replenish the parasitic worms the symptoms return?
Old Friends: The Promise of Parasitic Worms They even have eyes
…lol They help you eat and digest your carbs, proteins and fats? Sharing is caring?
Footnotes:
[1] ”…Moreover, their microbiomes include bacteria that have genes that could make them resistant to treatment with antibiotics. Some of these genes could even make these bacteria resistant to synthetic drugs — an alarming discovery, given that these villagers had never had contact with either people of industrialized societies or commercial antibiotics prior to the study, the researchers said. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health] “This is one more piece of clear evidence that antibiotic resistance is a natural feature of the human microbiota, just waiting to be activated and amplified after antibiotic use,” study researcher Gautam Dantas, an associate professor of pathology and immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said during a news conference Wednesday (April 15). …” …More
