If there is such a thing as the healthiest hearts in the world, then this group of people may just be the closest thing. Just recently, the so-called 'healthiest hearts in the world' has been discovered in a South American tribe. According to the researchers, the Tsimane people of the Bolivian Amazon have the healthiest arteries of any population today.
The Tsimane people are known for having a highly active lifestyle, spending most of their days hunting, fishing, or farming. They would also go into the forests to gather berries or other wild fruit and their diet mostly consists of carbohydrates with as little protein and fats as possible. It is safe to say that their way of living is similar to those who have lived thousands of years ago.
Pronounced as "chee-may-nay," there are about 16,000 Tsimane that live in the Amazon rainforest in Bolivia and in the study conducted by the researchers, they have found that 9 out 10 of Tsimane men and women have clear arteries and showed no signs of heart disease or any risks related thereof, The Telegraph reported. Not only that, even the elderly Tsimane seems to be in quite good shape as almost two thirds of those aged 75 and above are nearly free of risk and only about eight percent showed potential risks. In fact, there is even an 80-year old Tsimane who have arteries that are similar to those of middle-aged Americans.
This just goes to show that the Tsimane are more physically active as compared to other people from around the world. Tsimane men have an average of 17,000 steps per day and the women are averaged at 16,000. Most people today couldn't even manage to complete 10,000 steps whereas even the Tsimane whose ages are 60 and beyond has an average step of 15,000 per day.
But it isn't just their day-to-day activities that give them healthy hearts a great part of it is also with the kinds of food they ingest. According to BBC, 72 percent of their diet consists of carbohydrates while fat only counts for about 14 percent and the same goes with proteins. Their diet is mostly natural consisting of fruits, wild pigs and freshwater fish.
The Tsimane lifestyle is highly similar to the hunter-gatherer way of life followed by humans during ancient times. However, the modern people of today cannot simply revert back to this lifestyle but that doesn't mean they cannot learn a thing or two from the Tsimane folk.