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What people eat with the most healthy heart

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 31.05.2018
 
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27 March 2017, 09:00

Scientists have discovered a tribe in which people live, practically having no problems with the heart. They are representatives of the Bolivian village of Zimane.

Experts examined all the residents of the tribe, even the oldest, and did not find they have particular problems with the cardiovascular system. To understand the cause of this phenomenon, scientists analyzed the nutrition and life characteristics of these people, and found several significant differences.

So, most of the inhabitants of the settlement are engaged in hunting, fishing, farming - that is, they themselves procure themselves food. At least 17% of the total diet they make is meat products - it's game, as well as meat of some local rodent animals.

In addition, the representatives of the tribe use fish - about 7%, - mostly freshwater species.

The rest of the diet - that is, the largest - consists of cereals, corn, cassava (local potatoes), nuts, all sorts of fruits and especially bananas.

If you decompose the resulting diet to the percentage of nutrients, you can see the following picture: the bulk of calories population of Chimane gets from carbohydrate food of plant origin. In this case, the daily amount of food contains relatively little fat - in fact, game meat is quite lean.

Residents of the tribe are engaged in active physical work. For example, according to estimates, each resident passes an average of 15 to 17 thousand steps daily, regardless of age. Perhaps, it is the combination of such nutrition and physical activity that allows the settlement to maintain health and longevity.

Scientists have checked the health status of representatives of this area who have already reached the 75-year mark, and noticed that 70% of these people had absolutely clean and healthy blood vessels. By comparison, at this age more than 80% of Americans already have arterial deposits and atherosclerotic changes in the vascular walls.

At the same time it is noted that similar indicators were found in the female population of Japan.

In addition to nutrition and physical activity, experts noticed that the Bolivians almost do not smoke, but are relatively often infected with infectious diseases and helminthiases. However, in all likelihood, this does not affect the condition of the heart and blood vessels.

Professor-anthropologist Michael Gerven of the University of California, Santa Barbara, notes that this result can achieve both Europeans and Americans. The main thing is to do daily physical work, take healthy food with a limited amount of fat, and also have a general positive attitude. Tribal residents rarely quarrel, they are alien to urbanization with a constant presence of stress, they adhere to a positive outlook.

Dr. Nevid Sattar, a spokesman for the University of Glasgow, confirms the above: "The results of the study prove once again that we are very knowledgeable about the measures to prevent diseases of the cardiovascular system. What does a person need to live long? Healthy food, minimized heat treatment of food, no bad habits, physical activity. "

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