Why Age?

Secrets of the Running People

“Growing older is a dynamic cognitive, biological and cultural coauthoring of health rather than a hopeless unfolding of progressive pathology.” Mario Martinez Psy.Ed (Clinical psychologist)

There is a tribe who drink, smoke and take drugs yet grow into their old age with vigour and endurance.

They run double marathons several times a week and have no diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

They break most of modern science’s dietary rules but continue to flummox researchers who travel to their remote, forbidding region to study their traditional ways.

In 1993 a group of them competed in the insane, gruelling Leadville 100, a race run over rough trails in the Rocky Mountains and designed to test the very limits of human endurance. Competitors run for many hours well into the night to complete the 100-mile distance if possible. They must carry torches to light their way and many do not make it to the finish line. Members of this mysterious tribe placed first, second and fifth. The winner was 55 years old.

They are known to the outside world as the Tarahumara. They call themselves the “Raramuri”, or the Running People.

They have lived for over 600 years in Copper Canyon, an isolated and rugged part of the Sierra Madre range in Mexico’s Chihuahua region.  Their way of life has remained unchanged since they retreated here to escape the Spanish Conquistadors.

Why do they run so much? Men and women from early adolescence to old age run because, well because they run. It defines them as a people. Mass races over two days for more than 150 miles while kicking a wooden ball serve to cement social ties and are a reminder of the uniquely human practice of persistence hunting.

 For early humans chasing prey for many miles until it keeled over was an essential part of our hunter-gatherer lifestyle and the Tarahumara are still at it. Herbivores’ respiration is tied to their gait but humans can breathe out of step. We also sweat to cool ourselves and if you are prepared to run at a moderate pace for many miles you are likely to exhaust your prey who prefers to sprint and rest, sprint and rest. Australian Aborigines of the 19th Century were observed to chase kangaroo for up to 80 miles before they collapsed into stock fences, too exhausted to bound over to freedom.

Now don’t panic. I’m not advocating ultra running as a path to healthy longevity. In fact distance running, while good for fitness does not seem to lead to a longer life. The “Flying Finn”, Paavo Nurmi who won 9 gold medals and two silvers over three Olympic Games: 1920, 1924 and 1928 lived to a creditable but modest 76. Emil Zatopek, the great Czech who won three golds at the Helsinki Games of 1952, including the marathon - which he entered on a whim after winning the 5000 and 10,000 metres events and had never run before - lived to 78. Vladimir Kuts, the Russian strong man who won the 5000 metres at the 1956 Melbourne Games was felled by a heart attack at age 48.

Perhaps if Kuts had followed the Tarahumara diet he might have lived as long as Nurmi and Zatopek…or longer. There seems to be something protective about the diet of these traditional Indians that repairs the damage of their long runs and allows them mind-boggling stamina.

What do they eat? Like most pre-Conquest Indians of meso America they rely on the triumvirate of corn, beans and squash, and so much more. Most traditional peoples depend on key staples that combine to provide protein and all nutritional requirements despite being humble “uncivilized” foods. On its own corn is not enough to sustain health. The slave trade and large swathes of African populations found this out when they were forced to eat cornmeal and little else. Protein deficiency and the “disease of the mealies” or pellagra (B Vitamin deficiency) caused the malnutrition death of countless thousands.

But combine corn with its traditional partners squash and beans and you have a power-packed diet. The Tarahumara go so much further and eat a huge variety of mostly plant foods gathered from their region. These include chili peppers, wild greens and chia seeds. Remember your Chia pet? The Tarahumara carry a gourd of chia slurpee they regard as their energy drink that allows them to scamper up cliffs and outrun rabbits.

Most of their corn is consumed as pinole - ground toasted corn mixed with water that thickens to a gruel, prevents hunger and provides slow- release energy. Elsewhere on the Tarahumara shopping list are pine nuts, juniper berries, pecans, acorns, wild grapes and strawberries and yucca seed. Wild mint, agave hearts, prickly pear and mesquite pods ground to meal or infused in tea round out their diet. Fish, goat and mice are hunted to supplement this largely vegetarian fare.

Is it possible to reprise this way of eating in our modern society? Research by Dr Daphne Miller in her book “The Jungle Effect” focuses on traditional diets around the world. She analyses the conundrum that Tarahumara blood sugar levels are low despite a high carbohydrate diet. Corn is a medium to high GI food and the levels eaten by the Tarahumara should trigger an insulin response according to the mantra of this food classification system which, if you’d read my earlier posts, I think is bunk for non-diabetics. She emphasizes that their corn is minimally processed and fibre-rich, so if you are choosing corn products to add to your diet, don’t think corn chips, think coarse cornmeal. Whole beans added to salads and other dishes such as omelletes will also Tarahumara-ize your diet.

Lots of fruit and vegetables, some nuts and seeds and a balance of high-carbohydrate from good sources, protein garnered from grains and legumes and a low intake of fats and processed foods will do the rest. If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is the way many non-industrial peoples around the world eat and underscores the simple message I try to get across.

The tricky bit is to find wild plant foods in our city lifestyles. The easy bit is to avoid drinking large quantities of mescal and fruit wine which the Tarahumara are wont to do for days on end, even before a big race. Tesguino, or corn beer is low in alcohol and more like a sports drink and they consume a lot. Hallucinogenic drugs like peyote accompany drinking binges and may serve to bind tribal members or just provide an emotional outlet not provided by their reticent, non-confrontational mindset. Descriptions of runners at the start of a race sharing a cigarette of dark, homegrown tobacco jar with our concept of super-athletes as well.  

I guess the moral of the Tarahumara story is that natural foods go a long way to combating the strains of living and growing older. They do not enjoy a long lifespan. The average life expectancy is only 45 but that figure is likely to be diminished by a high infant mortality rate and the poverty that marginalizes them. We enjoy access to good medical care as a rule in modern societies and if we can harness the power of a traditional diet like that of the Tarahumara and enjoy at least moderate levels of exercise we can achieve a more dynamic older age than we can imagine