The "benefits" of civilization
People with the healthiest hearts started using cooking oil for frying and began to gain weight quickly
Evgenia Efimova, Vesti
The indigenous people of Bolivia, the Tsimane people, are considered to be the people with the healthiest cardiovascular system. Meanwhile, some time ago, people with obesity began to appear among them. According to scientists, this is due to edible oil, which representatives of the Tsimane have become increasingly used in recent years.
The Tsimane live by growing crops, gathering and hunting. They often become the heroes of research, for example, devoted to musical tastes and the study of sleep deprivation.
A few years ago, scientists also became interested in what causes the good health of the cardiovascular systems of tsimane. It is worth mentioning that representatives of this nationality most often die at a fairly young age, mainly due to infectious diseases. But they almost never develop diseases of the cardiovascular system.
As scientists have established, it is banal, but a fact: it is proper nutrition and physical activity that make these people so healthy. However, Tsimane increasingly come into contact with the rest of the world and, as a result, change the diet.
As part of a recent work, a group of American scientists studied data on the health status of more than 300 Tsimane over the age of 20. The information obtained over the past eight years contained heart health indicators, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, as well as eating habits.
Researchers found that in 2002, 22.6% of Tsimane women were overweight (BMI from 25 to 30), while 2.4% were obese (BMI over 30). By 2010, the situation had changed: 28.8% of the fair sex were overweight and 8.9% were obese.
In tsimane men, who are usually more active, the same pattern was observed, but with a smaller increase in BMI.
Of course, such indicators are much lower than those that can be found in other groups: in the United States, almost half of the adult population suffers from obesity. In addition, Tsimane still have very low rates of cardiovascular diseases. However, researchers believe that the situation may change soon.
Despite the fact that the number of calories that the representatives of the Tsimane eat on average has not changed much, they have become more likely to use edible oil. And this, as scientists note, determines higher BMI among women of the nationality.
By 2010, almost a third of the households of these indigenous Bolivians had started using store-bought frying oil.
According to scientists, such a "modernization" of the tsimane diet may harm the health of their hearts in the future.
The results of the study are published in the publication Obesity (Bethancourt et al., Longitudinal Changes in Measures of Body Fat and Diet Among Adult Tsimane’ Forager‐Horticulturalists of Bolivia, 2002-2010).
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