Indigenous peoples have fascinated me for quite some time. They fascinate me because, in general, they are much, much healthier than the people in our "modern" societies.
Four of these indigenous peoples, in particular, fascinate me because they are, researchers agree, the healthiest peoples on earth. They are the Hunzas of northern Pakistan, the Vilcabambans of Equador, the Abkhasians of Georgian Russia and the Tarahumaras of Mexico.
Among these people, the common degenerative diseases of "modern" societies—heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes, arthritis, MS and so on—are virtually unknown. Not only that, but they tend to live longer, in general, than everyone else on the planet.
A caveat: This was true 50 to 70 years ago, when they were first studied. In the last 20 to 30 years, it has become less true as contact with industrialised influences and diet have begun to percolate into their societies. So when we talk about them, we're talking about them as they used to be.
A number of studies have revealed that it is their diets that make the difference. It's not "lack of stress," it's not that they're "primitive," it's not some magic food element, it's not that they live in the mountains or the valleys. It's the diet. A number of researchers, beginning with the British researcher Robert McCarrison, have conclusively established this.
What's remarkable, too, is that the diets are all remarkably similar. To begin with, they're 99% vegetarian, meaning that 99% of their calories come from the plant kingdom. On feast days, which happen a dozen times a year or so, the wealthier members of the society will have a little meat or dairy—but this is a rare exception to their plant-based diet.
Second, their diets are unprocessed and unrefined. There's no such thing as concentrated sugars, white flours, white rice, canned or processed foods, foods with additives and "preservatives" and lots of extra salt and fat and so forth. Such things don't exist. In short, they eat their food very close to the way nature makes it.
Another way of putting it is that they don't have any "fractionated" food elements, that is, food elements that have been separated from the original food. Examples of fractionated food elements are white sugar, table salt, wheat germ, vitamins and minerals in a bottle, fruit juice, white rice, bran flakes and so on. They don't have those things, much less "foods" made from them.
They eat whole foods, which contain the thousands of phytochemicals of various kinds that nature has put into such foods, only a fraction of which science has begun to identify.
Even if we could identify those thousands of phytochemicals and put them all into a pill, it wouldn't be the same as the original foods. As systems theory teaches, the arrangement of the parts is even more important than the parts themselves. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The best description of their diet is that it is a starch-based diet. That is, the centerpiece of every meal is a complex, unrefined, unprocessed starch, normally a cereal grain.
Examples are brown rice, whole-grain wheat, whole-grain corn, millet, rye and so forth. Other examples of unprocessed starches are potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and winter squashes.
These starches are consumed in an unrefined form. Note that there's world of difference between a baked potato and french fries, between whole-wheat chapattis and white-flour pasta or bread, between fresh corn and corn chips, and so forth. The latter have been stripped of most of their vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytochemicals and have become "naked" starches.
With this unrefined starch as the centerpiece, they then add fresh, uncooked fruit (often for breakfast), or fresh cooked or uncooked vegetables (usually for lunch and/or supper).
Frequently, but not always, the starch is supplemented with a legume (beans, peas, lentils) in a ratio of about 2 to 1, grains to legumes. Many examples abound throughout the traditional cultures of the world—rice and tofu, rice and lentils, corn and beans, brown bread with pea soup, etc.
An example of such a diet in a modern setting would be something like this, though the variations are endless:
Breakfast—cooked whole millet (from scratch, 20 minutes) with a fresh banana or berries added to it.
Lunch—a large salad with a baked potato or two.
Dinner—a salad, brown rice with lentils, and a couple of vegetables steamed or stir-fried with a low-fat dressing.
Desserts or snacks, if any—fresh fruit.
A note: There's a world of difference between fresh fruit and refined sugars. The former is bound with fiber enzymes and minerals and thousands of phytochemicals—it's a whole different substance from sugars and corn syrups and concentrated fruit juices and all the various forms of fractionated sweeteners.
A second note: Carbohydrates have gotten a bad name in some circles lately, but the problem is not carbohydrates—it's processed, refined carbohydrates. Complex, unrefined carbohydrates actually supply 80% of the calories of the healthiest peoples on earth (along with about 10% from protein and about 10% from natural fat in the food itself).
To someone accustomed to a breakfast of eggs or refined cereal with milk, hamburger and fries for lunch, and macaroni-and-cheese or barbequed chicken for dinner, ice cream for dessert, chips and pretzels for snacks and so forth, such a diet sounds hopelessly dull. I know.
But here's the thing (and I can personally testify to it): Over time, which can range from a few weeks to a few months, your taste buds change, and you actually begin to love and crave such a simple, unrefined, unprocessed diet. It's remarkable but true. And these days, a number of low-fat, plant-based cookbooks are available if one is inclined in that direction.
One final thing: You especially come to love the tremendous energy and vitality and sense of well-being that comes with such a diet. The changes in how you look and feel are gradual but extremely remarkable.
Even more remarkable, many chronic "conditions" and illnesses reverse and heal as the body gratefully performs its magic. There's no guarantees in this life—but see for yourself.
Here's a wish for your good health and well-being in the new year.
—jim sloman, for 1/5/02
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