Meat-Based vs Grain-Based Diet | The Maasai Were Taller, Heavier and Stronger

[Henlus]

🎆 The Maasai and the Kikuyu lived side by side in 1920s Kenya, and a British survey measured what separated them: about 5 inches and a diet.
   

The Maasai:
- Milk, meat and blood

- 5 inches taller

- 23lb heavier

- 50% stronger on the dynamometer

The Kikuyu:
- Maize, millet, sweet potato, beans, greens

- More bone deformity

- More rotten teeth

- More anaemia

- More tropical ulcers

Both peoples, one tape measure.

The survey was led by John Boyd Orr, who went on to be the first head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and collected a Nobel Peace Prize along the way.

In 2006 that same organisation published Livestock's Long Shadow, the report that taught the world to blame the cow.

[Sendrix]

This is interesting. The difference in height and strength is quite significant. I wonder how much of it was diet and how much was genetics and lifestyle.

[John@]

So the Maasai were eating mostly animal products while the Kikuyu had a much more plant-based diet. That is a fascinating comparison.

5 inches taller and 23 pounds heavier is not a small difference. The strength difference makes the comparison even more interesting. I'll eat more meat and milk then 😄. Blood isn't for me. Yuck!