The High-Carb Diet That Prevents Heart Disease

I was recently on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It’s quiet, it’s green. Nice beaches, big mountains. Perfect. While in town, I visited the Kauai museum—and stumbled into information about food and health that breaks most modern diet rules. The original people of Kauai were models of health. Yet their diet would lead most internet nutrition gurus to spin out in a fit. By every health marker scientists care about, however, the people of Kauai were among the leanest and healthiest on earth. Then Westerners arrived. The traditional diet fell away to spam and Doritos and other industrial foods. Within a handful of generations, obesity and chronic skyrocketed. Today, roughly half of all native Hawaiians are obese, and “Compared with other racial/ethnic groups in Hawaii, Native Hawaiians have a higher prevalence of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease,” one study found. A group of researchers wanted to know what would happen if they put people back on the original diet of Kauai: give them the old foods, tell them to eat until they were full, then see what happens. The results hold six useful lessons for anyone. And they’re backed by one of the most famous nutritional anthropology studies ever conducted. They can help us rediscover a state of leanness, fend off the number one killer of humans worldwide, and feel better day to day—less sluggish, fewer stomach issues, etc. The researchers also found—very surprisingly!—that the diet drastically improved health even without much exercise. Today you’ll learn: How the original Kauai diet created some of the leanest, most disease-free populations on earth. The wild metabolic results of a 21-day study that reverted modern Hawaiians back to their ancestral foods. Why heart attacks and blood pressure spikes—the diseases of “normal aging”—are completely optional. Six actionable steps to train your taste buds and implement this anti-aging lifestyle, even if you hate the gym. I reeled in a giant Wahoo in Hawaii while wearing Janji gear. Then I ran and hiked in the same gear. Janji makes apparel that works for any outdoor adventure. Now that it’s getting hot and sunny, check out the Sunchaser Hoodie (Men’s, Women’s). Find Janji at Janji.com and at REI stores nationwide. Read more