Staple crops of the Tarahumara are maize, beans, greens, squash, and tobacco. Chilli, potatoes, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes appear in Mexicanized regions. Corn is planted in February and March using oxen which are often loaned as not everyone owns one. Corn begins to flower in August; by November it is harvested and cooked or stored.[24] Common corn dishes are pinole, tortillas, esquiate, atole, tamales, and boiled and roasted ears [25] Beans are one of the Tarahumaras’ essential protein-rich foods and are usually served fried after being boiled. Tamales and beans are a common food which the Tarahumara carry with them on travels. Wheat and fruits were introduced by missionaries and are a minor source of nutrition. The fruits grown by the Tarahumara include apples, apricots, figs, and oranges. The Tarahumaras also eat meat, but this constitutes less than 5% of their diet.

According to William Connors, a dietary researcher, their traditional diet was found to be linked to their low incidence of diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. However, the Tarahumaras' health is transitioning in regions where processed goods have begun to replace their traditional staples. [28]

Today, the running abilities of the Tarahumara people of the Copper Canyon of Northwestern Mexico, and the East Africans from Kenya and Ethiopia provide undeniable evidence that the healthiest diets for human beings are very high in carbohydrates (natural sugars). Members of these communities have exceptional capacities for performance and endurance, which translates into winning.

Historically the Tarahumara are known to run distances of up to 200 miles in a competitive sport of "kickball" races, lasting several days. Honoring their abilities is the 50-mile foot race called "Ultramaraton Caballo Blanco." These men and women are noted for their absence of obesity and diabetes, and their very low levels of cholesterol and blood pressure. Carbohydrates, primarily from corn, beans, and squash, make up almost 80% of their diet, and meat consumption is rare.

The exceptional running abilities of the Tarahumara are not due to a genetic advantage. People from the same ancestral linage, the Pima of Southwestern US, have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and coronary heart disease in the world as a direct consequence of adopting a diet based on meat, dairy, and junk food less than a century ago.

It is increasingly a shameful national embarrassment for the United States to have constructed a billion-dollar cardiac healthcare industry surrounding an illness that does not even exist in more than half of the planet. If you, as a cardiologist or a cardiac surgeon, decided to hang your shingle in Okinawa,[3] the Papua Highlands of New Guinea,[4] rural China,[5] Central Africa,[6] or with the Tarahumara Indians of Northern Mexico,[7] you better plan on a different profession because these countries do not have cardiovascular disease. The common thread is that they all thrive on whole food, plant-based nutrition (WFPBN) with minimal intake of animal products.

Question: Can heart disease be stopped or even reversed?

Answer: Yes. First we must look at the lessons learned from cultures where there is a virtual absence of coronary artery heart disease such as rural China, the Papua Highlands of New Guinea, Central Africa, and the Tarahumara Indians of Northern Mexico. Their nutrition is plant based without oil.

Plant-based nutrition provides us with a pathway to escape the coronary artery disease epidemic. For persons in central Africa, the Papua Highlanders of New Guinea, the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico, and inhabitants of rural China as described in the Cornell China Study, coronary disease is essentially non-existent while hypertension, Western malignancies, obesity, and adult onset diabetes are rarely encountered.

The Southwestern Indians Live and Die by Carbohydrates

The Tarahumara Indians living in the Sierra Madre Occidental region of northwestern Mexico are an example of the high level of activity an entire population of people can enjoy on high-carb foods.[8] These people are known worldwide as "the running Indians," because their entire culture is based around sprinting from one place to the next, and they have been known to travel between 50 and 80 miles every day at a race-like pace. Their diet is practically meatless, consisting of 90% corn, pinto beans (chili), and vegetables (like squash).[9] This energetic population is free of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.[10]

However, their genetic relatives, the Pima Indians, reside in Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. These Indians gave up their high-carbohydrate diet over 75 years ago in favor of the high-fat, high-protein, and high-cholesterol American diet. Now, over 80% of these people who are over 55 years of age suffer from type-2 diabetes and obesity; and heart disease and kidney failure are epidemic.[10,11] Needless to say, running is not a part of their daily doings, in part because of the all-too-common amputations of gangrenous legs and feet because of their diabetes.

Native Americans, for example the Pima Indians of Arizona, introduced to the Western diet over the past 75 years, are now afflicted so severely that as many as one-half of them has diabetes.[7] However, their genetic cousins, the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, following a diet consisting of 90% corn and pinto beans (chili), and vegetables (like squash), are free of type-2 diabetes – as well as obesity and heart disease.[8,9]

Tarahumara Indians:

The Tarahumara Indians from Mexico have attracted special medical attention because of their remarkable physical endurance and their diet, which contains very little food from animal sources. They inhabit the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in the north‐central state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Members of this tribe have an exceptional capacity for exercise.[12,13] Scattered anthropological reports suggest that the diet of the Tarahumaras consists primarily of beans, corn, and squash.[12,14] Connor [15], evaluating 523 healthy Tarahumara, observed cholesterol intake to be 72 mg/day, while fat comprised only 12% of total calories. The mean plasma total cholesterol (TC) was 125 mg, and triglyceride was (TG) 120 mg/dl. They showed an excellent correlation between intake of cholesterol from 20 to 150 mg/dl and TC levels. Adult Tarahumara have low plasma TC levels, averaging 136 mg/dl.[16] In another study, the same authors enrolled eight Tarahumara men in a cholesterol‐feeding experiment with two dietary periods of 3 weeks: first a baseline, cholesterol‐free diet followed by a second one containing 1000 mg of cholesterol provided in the form of egg yolk. Other than different cholesterol content, the diets were identical, with the bulk of calories derived from corn and beans. Plasma cholesterol level increased from 113 to 134 mg/dl after feeding dietary cholesterol; LDL‐C rose similarly. This net increase of 34 mg/dl, or 30%, in plasma cholesterol was, roughly, similar to the changes already described in normocholesterolemic U.S. subjects having a different dietary background.[17]

Pima Indians:

The Pima Indians of Arizona have the highest reported prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes. In parallel with abrupt changes in lifestyle, these prevalences in the Arizona Pimas have increased to epidemic proportions during recent decades. To assess the possible impact of the environment on the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes, Ravussin et al.[19] collected data on members of a population with Pima ancestry (separation 700‐1000 years ago) living in a remote, mountainous location in northwestern Mexico, with a lifestyle contrasting markedly with that in Arizona. They observed that obesity and, perhaps, type 2 diabetes are less prevalent among people of Pima heritage living a “traditional” lifestyle than among Pima living in an “affluent” environment. The authors suggest that, despite a similar potential genetic predisposition for metabolic health conditions, a traditional lifestyle, characterized by a diet including less animal fat and more complex carbohydrates and by greater energy expenditure in physical labor, may protect against the development of cardiovascular disease risk factors, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.