Metabolic Uncle@MetabolicUncle
THE CARNIVORE CULT’S WORST NIGHTMARE: TWO TRIBES, ZERO EXCUSES
Two indigenous populations. Both eating whole foods, both physically active, both free from processed garbage.
One has the cleanest arteries ever documented in medical literature. The other shows arterial plaque typical of sedentary western 60-year-olds by age 40 to 50.
The Tsimane eat 72% carbohydrates. That's 450 grams daily. Their cardiovascular health is exceptional.
The Maasai eat 66% fat, 27% protein, and just 13% carbs. Their arteries are a mess despite walking 15-18 kilometers every day.
Notice the macros are complete opposites.
Watch what happens when carnivore advocates are confronted with this data. The excuses flood in: desert storms, genetics, electromagnetic fields... anything but the obvious conclusion staring them in the face.
"But I got rid of my auto immune disease... and I lost weight on carnivore (because my depressed Thyroid made me eat less) and I reversed my insulin resistance".
Honestly, that’s really great. I am happy for you. Besides the fact that you could also have done this without risking clogging your arteries… I just hope that you won’t run into other long-term issues with your kidneys or your arteries.
Even a simplistic diet like carnivore can always be optimized. Don’t trust the people telling you muscle meat is all you need. If you want to eat this way... or perhaps even need to eat this way because it is the only way for you to control whatever chronic issue you might have... make sure that you also eat glycine or collagen to balance methionine.
“But the Maasai don’t die of heart attacks!!!”
No shit, Sherlock. Their wild tribal lifestyle kills them in their 50s. They don’t live long enough to die of a heart attack.
Plus, 15 km of walking every day kind of widens their arteries and protects the massive plaque build-up killing them in their 30s. Do carnivore couch warriors actually think that this applies to them, too?
Here's where it gets truly absurd. Those 13% carbs in the Maasai diet, mostly from honey and milk lactose, become the scapegoat.
According to carnivore logic, 13% carbohydrates destroy arteries while 72% carbohydrates create the cleanest arteries on Earth.
The position is mathematically incoherent and biologically impossible, but the cognitive dissonance is breathtaking.
You can show them the autopsy data. You can cite studies like KETO-CTA, where lean, healthy people on ketogenic diets showed faster atherosclerosis progression than obese diabetics on standard American diets.
They'll ignore it. Because they do not care about evidence. It's religion wearing a lab coat.
Every cult operates the same way. Contradictory evidence gets explained away, never examined. The framework can never be wrong, only misunderstood.
When reality conflicts with doctrine, reality must be reinterpreted until it submits.
Both tribes eat real food. Both move their bodies extensively. Both avoid industrial processing. Both have strong social structures.
The common factors are obvious. But acknowledging them would mean admitting the hysterical carb-phobia was wrong from the start.
The carnivore movement has become unfalsifiable. Every piece of contradictory evidence gets absorbed into an expanding mythology of special cases. When your framework can explain any outcome, it explains nothing.
Here's the challenge: explain how 450 grams of daily carbohydrates produces pristine arteries while claiming 50 grams destroys metabolic health. Use actual mechanisms, not hand-waving about unmeasurable variables.
The pattern is predictable. This will be ignored, dismissed, or rationalized. The studies will be questioned. My motives will be attacked.
This although I am not a vegan and eat animal products myself. The difference is, I eat enough carbohydrates to keep my thyroid healthy and to not cause the metabolic adaptation that might cause atherosclerosis.
And of course, I also don’t eat useless butter or other extra fats, which I consider empty, harmful calories, and I also don’t eat the fattiest pieces of animal.
Makes a huge difference. Like this I can enjoy animal protein and a ton of carbs and have clean arteries and Trigs below 50.
Because guess what, carbs do not make you insulin resistant. They do not cause the pandemic of chronic disease. They do not cause atherosclerosis. As the Tsimane impressively show.
The Tsimane are thriving on their ultra-high-carb diet. The Maasai have severe atherosclerosis despite minimal carbs and extreme physical activity.
The data is clear.
Maybe humans can thrive on varying macronutrient ratios when eating real food. But some patterns clearly cause less arterial damage than others. That's not ideology. That's measurable reality.
The question is simple.
Do you believe solid facts or influencers making money on Youtube and selling liver pills and books while claiming vegetables are toxic?
References:
1) "Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane: a cross-sectional cohort study"
Prof Hillard Kaplan∙ Prof Randall C Thompson, MDb ∙ Benjamin C Trumble, PhDc ∙ L Samuel Wann, MDd ∙ Prof Adel H Allam, MDe ∙ Bret Beheim, PhDf ∙ et al.
"Despite a high infectious inflammatory burden, the Tsimane, a forager-horticulturalist population of the Bolivian Amazon with few coronary artery disease risk factors, have the lowest reported levels of coronary artery disease of any population recorded to date. These findings suggest that coronary atherosclerosis can be avoided in most people by achieving a lifetime with very low LDL, low blood pressure, low glucose, normal body-mass index, no smoking, and plenty of physical activity. The relative contributions of each are still to be determined."
Yes, you read that right: “low glucose” with 450 grams of carb intake. This is exactly what I experience myself, because high carb in a truly low-fat context makes you extremely insulin sensitive.
2) "ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN THE MASAI"
GEORGE V. MANN , ANNE SPOERRY , MARGARETE GARY , DEBRA JARASHOW
"The hearts and aortae of 50 Masai men were collected at autopsy. These pastoral people are exceptionally active and fit and they consume diets of milk and meat. The intake of animal fat exceeds that of American men. Measurements of the aorta showed extensive atherosclerosis with lipid infiltration and fibrous changes but very few complicated lesions. The coronary arteries showed intimal thickening by atherosclerosis which equaled that of old U.S. men. The Masai vessels enlarge with age to more than compensate for this disease. It is speculated that the Masai are protected from their atherosclerosis by physical fitness which causes their coronary vessels to be capacious."
