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"It means: 72% of calories come from carbohydrates compared with 52% in the US 14% from fat compared with 34% in the US, Tsimane also consume much less satura

by tpush 7y ago

"It means: 72% of calories come from carbohydrates compared with 52% in the US 14% from fat compared with 34% in the US, Tsimane also consume much less saturated fat Both Americans and Tsimane have 14% of calories from protein, but Tsimane have more lean meat" That really does seem counter to the low-carb diets that seem to be all the rage among internet communities (also HN). But, maybe it's just the constant exercise the Tsimane people are getting: "They are also far more physically active with the men averaging 17,000 steps a day and the women 16,000."

dfischer 7y ago
I’d say 8 miles a day has a lot to do with it.
- 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
  I love the title in the article: "Is it only diet and exercise?" Lol. So... they are telling the 'news' that people who eat well, are very physically active, live in close communities with little individual isolation... and they are healthy? Hold the presses! Seems like BBC had a day where they needed to put in some filler news articles.
  - txcwpalpha 7y ago
    One of the main intriguing things about this group of people is that they do not eat particularly well. > That heart health is in spite of the fact that they consume between 2,433 to 2,738 calories per day ... strangely, their diets aren’t incredibly healthy, though we can still learn a thing or two from their lifestyle. https://www.inverse.com/article/50572-tsimane-amazon-healthy-heart-high-calorie-diet https://www.inverse.com/article/50572-tsimane-amazon-healthy...
    - 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
      > One of the main intriguing things about this group of people is that they do not eat particularly well. That is only if you take for a fact we know what a healthy diet is and there is a single clear definition. For me, Healthy eating is a diverse diet that leads to good health. Particularly eating foods where caloric density is offset by nutritional value. Based on my own definition and the facts of the article, these people do eat healthy. I think the surprise comes from people who think they know what a 'healthy diet' is. As the article states, 'this is definitively not keto diet' - for me this means about zero to me. If that point is surprising to you or to a group of people, I think you are right, it is a surprising study from that point of view. Thanks for helping me understand the newsworthy part of this.
will_brown 7y ago
>That really does seem counter to the low-carb diets that seem to be all the rage among internet communities (also HN). Generally people discussing “low carb diets” really mean managing blood glucose/insulin spikes. So high glycemic carbs, refined sugars, refined carbs. Not all carbs are created equal when we talk about impacts on blood glucose and/or the liver.
- 52-6F-62 7y ago
  This is true. It's likely that beside the rice and maize, most of their carbs come from vegetables. It's one of the reasons why high-performance diets are usually heavy on the broccoli!
  - munk-a 7y ago
    Another absolutely killer carb in western diets comes out of refined flour which makes it into a ton of stuff. My wife is gluten-free currently for health reasons and we've experimented with using more raw starch sources to great success. Most of these flour based foods don't need to be super-refined bleached flour.
    - mcbits 7y ago
      Most "whole wheat" flour is literally the same refined flour from the same vat, but with some bran (fiber) and germ (nutrients) mixed back in. This could happen at the refinery shortly after refining, or weeks to months later using bran and germ sourced from a warehouse somewhere. Very unpredictable and not indicated anywhere on the label. What seems consistent is that both diets high in whole grains and high-fiber diets in general have some heart health benefits. My guess is that refined+enriched flour in a high-fiber meal is not much, if any, worse than whole flour in a medium- or low-fiber meal. Those pastries and chips between meals, on the other hand...
- bigDICK 7y ago
  Healthy people who are normal weight generally don't need to worry about blood glucose, insulin, liver, or anything else on the molecular level.
phil248 7y ago
Carbs are great if you're actually going to use the energy! The best even! The problem with Western habits is we tend to carb load until we have a tremendous excess of energy which we then use to... sit down for several hours while our body gets busy turning all that unused energy in to fat.
- rcombine 7y ago
  Exactly. Humans are meant to move, and not moving makes us fat. Now that we're extremely sedentary, we literally have no use for the amounts of rice and pasta we consume. We're victims of our own success.
  - bigDICK 7y ago
    Anecdotally I've seen plenty of fat people that move a lot. When one can have a 2,000 calorie pizza delivered on a whim there isn't much that exercise can do to prevent weight gain.
- cageface 7y ago
  Converting carbs into fat is fairly inefficient. It comes at about a 40% calorie loss. So you can put on fat eating carbs alone but it’s not easy. More often than not we eat carbs together with fat so your body will very happily just directly store the fat and burn the carbs for energy. This is why things like french fries or pizza are so fattening.
  - amelius 7y ago
    But if you eat just proteins and fat, the fat is not stored (see e.g. keto diet) How can this be explained?
    - mrfusion 7y ago
      I’d guess it’s because in that case you don’t produce much insulin which is starting to be called the fat storage hormone.
kup0 7y ago
Seems like exercise is probably a big factor here. Exercise can help curb insulin spikes caused by high carb intake, among its other benefits

by tpush 7y ago

dfischer 7y ago

I’d say 8 miles a day has a lot to do with it.

4ntonius8lock 7y ago
I love the title in the article: "Is it only diet and exercise?" Lol. So... they are telling the 'news' that people who eat well, are very physically active, live in close communities with little individual isolation... and they are healthy? Hold the presses! Seems like BBC had a day where they needed to put in some filler news articles.
- txcwpalpha 7y ago
  One of the main intriguing things about this group of people is that they do not eat particularly well. > That heart health is in spite of the fact that they consume between 2,433 to 2,738 calories per day ... strangely, their diets aren’t incredibly healthy, though we can still learn a thing or two from their lifestyle. https://www.inverse.com/article/50572-tsimane-amazon-healthy-heart-high-calorie-diet https://www.inverse.com/article/50572-tsimane-amazon-healthy...
  - 4ntonius8lock 7y ago
    > One of the main intriguing things about this group of people is that they do not eat particularly well. That is only if you take for a fact we know what a healthy diet is and there is a single clear definition. For me, Healthy eating is a diverse diet that leads to good health. Particularly eating foods where caloric density is offset by nutritional value. Based on my own definition and the facts of the article, these people do eat healthy. I think the surprise comes from people who think they know what a 'healthy diet' is. As the article states, 'this is definitively not keto diet' - for me this means about zero to me. If that point is surprising to you or to a group of people, I think you are right, it is a surprising study from that point of view. Thanks for helping me understand the newsworthy part of this.

will_brown 7y ago

>That really does seem counter to the low-carb diets that seem to be all the rage among internet communities (also HN). Generally people discussing “low carb diets” really mean managing blood glucose/insulin spikes. So high glycemic carbs, refined sugars, refined carbs. Not all carbs are created equal when we talk about impacts on blood glucose and/or the liver.

52-6F-62 7y ago
This is true. It's likely that beside the rice and maize, most of their carbs come from vegetables. It's one of the reasons why high-performance diets are usually heavy on the broccoli!
- munk-a 7y ago
  Another absolutely killer carb in western diets comes out of refined flour which makes it into a ton of stuff. My wife is gluten-free currently for health reasons and we've experimented with using more raw starch sources to great success. Most of these flour based foods don't need to be super-refined bleached flour.
  - mcbits 7y ago
    Most "whole wheat" flour is literally the same refined flour from the same vat, but with some bran (fiber) and germ (nutrients) mixed back in. This could happen at the refinery shortly after refining, or weeks to months later using bran and germ sourced from a warehouse somewhere. Very unpredictable and not indicated anywhere on the label. What seems consistent is that both diets high in whole grains and high-fiber diets in general have some heart health benefits. My guess is that refined+enriched flour in a high-fiber meal is not much, if any, worse than whole flour in a medium- or low-fiber meal. Those pastries and chips between meals, on the other hand...
bigDICK 7y ago
Healthy people who are normal weight generally don't need to worry about blood glucose, insulin, liver, or anything else on the molecular level.

phil248 7y ago

Carbs are great if you're actually going to use the energy! The best even! The problem with Western habits is we tend to carb load until we have a tremendous excess of energy which we then use to... sit down for several hours while our body gets busy turning all that unused energy in to fat.

rcombine 7y ago
Exactly. Humans are meant to move, and not moving makes us fat. Now that we're extremely sedentary, we literally have no use for the amounts of rice and pasta we consume. We're victims of our own success.
- bigDICK 7y ago
  Anecdotally I've seen plenty of fat people that move a lot. When one can have a 2,000 calorie pizza delivered on a whim there isn't much that exercise can do to prevent weight gain.
cageface 7y ago
Converting carbs into fat is fairly inefficient. It comes at about a 40% calorie loss. So you can put on fat eating carbs alone but it’s not easy. More often than not we eat carbs together with fat so your body will very happily just directly store the fat and burn the carbs for energy. This is why things like french fries or pizza are so fattening.
- amelius 7y ago
  But if you eat just proteins and fat, the fat is not stored (see e.g. keto diet) How can this be explained?
  - mrfusion 7y ago
    I’d guess it’s because in that case you don’t produce much insulin which is starting to be called the fat storage hormone.

kup0 7y ago

Seems like exercise is probably a big factor here. Exercise can help curb insulin spikes caused by high carb intake, among its other benefits