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!

[Ekene]

But were the two groups doing the same type of physical activity? That would be important before blaming everything on diet.

[Kryon]

The anaemia and rotten teeth figures caught my attention. Nutrition clearly involves more than just calories.
I would love to see the original survey and exactly how they measured strength. A dynamometer measurement would be interesting to examine.

[Donk]

Genetics should not be ignored either. A difference between two populations cannot automatically be attributed to food.

[Danny]

The dental-health difference is particularly interesting. Diet can have a major effect on teeth, especially when comparing different carbohydrate intakes.