Here is another post about these amazingly healthy Indian athletes who live in a remote Mexican canyon.

Tony Ramirez, a horticulturist in the US, who’s been obsessed with Tarahumara foods for decades says that “Anything the Tarahumara eat, you can obtain easily…It’s mostly beans, squash, chilli peppers, wild greens, ground corn and chia.” (Chia is a seed that can absorb more than 12 times its weight in water, and is available online at www.amazon.com)

The Tarahumara’s favorite drink, apart from home-brewed corn beer, is a little concoction whipped up by dissolving chia seeds in water and adding a little sugar and a squirt of lime. As tiny as those seeds are, they’re packed with omega-3s, protein, fibres and antioxidants. And there’s no arguing with its pedigree: On a diet like that, a 55-year-old Tarahumara runner won a 160km race through the Colorado Rockies.

Is it all true? Change your diet, and you can start running ultra-marathons your whole life? There are other benefits according to references in the book about this tribe, Born To Run.

An MIT professor of cancer research says that one in seven cancer deaths is caused by excess body fat. “Change your life style, and you can reduce your risk of cancer by 60-70%,” says Dr. Robert Weinberg. After eating less, we are told to give up all red meat and animal protein (cheese, eggs, milk, etc). Remove cancer tumors, and they are 300% more likely to grow back with a “traditional Western diet” than they are if the patient eats lots of fruit and vegetables. Because stray cells are stimulated by animal protein.

Reminds me of a fellow in the army who never ate vegetables. He pointed to his sharp teeth designed for ripping meat and refused to eat “grass” like a cow. But here is a link to a Weinberg lecture (one hour long) that you can explore. Unfortunately he admits that avoiding meat will help you avoid cancer, but once you have cancer, there is thin evidence that avoiding animal protein will help you get rid of it. Weinberg also points out that since the connection between eating meat and getting cancer has been demonstrated, the Burger Kings of the world have seen no major decline in customers. So most people aren’t changing their eating habits, and the fat in meat definitely adds to the flavor in my opinion.