I've just been watching some documentaries about the Maasai. Fascinating folk. Then I was reading this article which talks about the Maasai going on a refuge where they would increase the amount of meat (fat and protein) and have much fewer carbs for a few weeks. The researchers concluded that doing this raised their risk of diabetes. But was that an example of glucose sparing and only a temporary glucose metabolism disorder?
1 The Masai are famous examples of a population who eat meat and blood yet remain remarkably healthy. This goes against the mainstream message that so much meat would cause heart disease and bowel cancer.
2 If you fed these people excess protein (not sure how lean the meat was) you could definitely cause gluconeogenesis.
Why you'd want to prove a hypothesis that meat may cause glucose rin what seems like an unnatural environment (a refuge possibly not walking miles daily?) in a population that is notoriously disease free is an interesting question.
My bias is to not believe this is useful beyond what I already know as a type 1 i.e. that I still need insulin when eating a protein rich meal although it is about half what I'd dose for a carby meal. A vegetarian or vegan environmentalist might be delighted to share this study.
Just clicked through and it seems it is a ritualised annual meat binge in which special herbs are consumed to make it easier to over consume. Presumbaly given the absence of disease indicates that the Masai do not chooe to go to All You Can Eat Buffets for the rest of the year so perhaps this is just a way of building up spare reserves prior to anticipated lean times. A feast before a famine? The article also tries to draw the conclusion that the secret of their lean good health lies more in their daily habit of walking for miles rather than their diet but I am not sure this observational research demonstrates this.
It seems like an interesting project but someone has editorialised that dramatic title!