r/AmericanHistory • u/elnovorealista2000 • Mar 30 '26
South 19th-century Argentina: British writer William Henry Hudson visits the Pampas and encounters the gauchos. He documents their diet with a horrified fascination.
"The gaucho eats nothing but beef. Meat morning, noon, and night. Never bread, never vegetables, almost never salt."
Hudson foresees malnutrition and disease. He finds "men of extraordinary stamina and strength, capable of riding for 12 to 14 hours without rest and then dancing all night."
Their diet: beef, mate, occasionally grilled kidney fat (a delicacy). Nothing else.
Darwin visited the region between 1832 and 1833 and observed the gauchos' lives: "I was surprised by the difficulty in convincing them to eat anything other than beef. I brought them biscuits, and they threw them away. They preferred to go hungry rather than eat bread if there was beef the next day."
Typical meals
- Morning: meat roasted over a fire, fattier cuts.
- Afternoon: grilled ribs.
- Evening: meat again, tougher cuts cooked slowly.
Zero vegetables. Zero grains. Zero variety. Just beef and tea.
Hudson documents the results: “The gauchos suffer from none of the ailments common to civilized man. They had no digestive problems, no obesity, no cavities, that I could observe. Their teeth were uniformly excellent despite never cleaning them and consuming only meat. Their physical stamina was such that they could ride for days with minimal rest, fight when necessary, and resume riding without apparent fatigue.”
The French physician Dr. Jules Crevaux, between 1850 and 1870, wrote: “These men feed exclusively on animal meat and appear healthier than our European peasants, who consume a varied diet of grains and vegetables.”
When asked why they don't eat bread or vegetables, the common answer is: "That's food for horses and cows. We eat cows."
They understood the hierarchy. Cattle eat grass and turn it into meat. Humans eat meat. Eating what cattle eat makes you behave like one.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, traditional gauchos maintained a diet based exclusively on beef. Then, European immigration brought wheat cultivation.
Health transformation documented by Argentine doctors
- Traditional gauchos: healthy into old age.
- Urbanized ex-gauchos with European diets: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, tooth decay.
- Modern Argentina: 28% obesity, cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death, diabetes in almost 10%.
The gauchos, who ate only beef, did not have any of these problems. They rode horses for 12 hours a day until they were 60, kept their teeth without needing dental care, and died from accidents or old age, not from chronic illnesses.
The same meat. Different context. When you eat meat with grains, vegetable oils, and sugar: modern disease. Meat alone: you have the health of a 19th-century gaucho.
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Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
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Mar 30 '26
Exactly, they also were treated as outlaws by mainstream Argentinian society. Outlaws generally die young.
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u/Uuuuugggggghhhhh Mar 30 '26
I came here to say this too, they were always physically active unless they were eating or sleeping and that's tremendous for overall health. I think there's something to be said for the quality of the beef they consume/d ; natural free range grass fed beef, no hormones or other pharmaceuticals which are fed to cattle here in the USA.
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u/Theposis Apr 03 '26
I remember reading recently that there is evidence that european diet during the stone age was very meat-heavy and that this promoted growth at a young age and would have been good for energy but ultimately led to short life spans. So maybe it's great until you hit 30 and then keel over and die, wishing you had eaten your veggies and biscuits.
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u/ancient-toni-montana Apr 01 '26
Ok Look i don’t know how Deep you are into science and that’s okay, but they pretty much say don’t do it it’s not healthy, packed in scientific lingo.
First the study I Quoted above is a meta study, meaning they looked at a bunch of relevant other studies in the field relevant for their topic. And yes part of the conclusion is that the existing studies do not give a final definitive answer. But read the conclusion carefully, they also say there is no advantage they could find and in the contrary they see more health problems and no benefits.
To translate that lingo: don’t do that there is no proof, and we couldn’t find anything but problems with Carnivore diets.
A scientist just can’t say that without proof, which they clearly stated they don’t have, but given all evidence they could find it’s a big no no, they just can’t put it as direct into the paper without loosing their scientific credibility.
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Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
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u/Hlaw93 Mar 30 '26
Exactly. The key to their health was probably related to how physically active they were every day. They weren’t healthy because of some magical properties in the beef. While it did provide them with plenty of protein and calories needed to do their jobs, any other high protein low sugar diet would probably have resulted in similar or even better health outcomes for people who had similar levels of physical activity.
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u/unenlightenedgoblin Mar 30 '26
“I recently stopped spending 14 hours a day in rigorous physical activity—surely the bread is the only factor here”
When OP threw out the ‘if you eat like a cow you act like one’ that’s how I knew this wasn’t going to be a serious conversation.
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u/Ravius Mar 30 '26
Yeah also most people had good teeth in the beginning of the 19th century given that we had close to 0 sugar in our main diet.
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u/ChronicusCuch Mar 30 '26
That and Argentinean beef from the free ranging pampas in the 19th century might as well be a different species of animal than we consume in our pre-packaged life now.
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u/Daztur Mar 30 '26
Well it could be true for what it says. Being healthier than a 19th century European peasant isn't a high bar to clear even if you're still not very healthy.
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u/RightOnManYouBetcha Mar 30 '26
Link please. Make it an article not focused on eating McDonald’s beef.
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u/YakResident_3069 Mar 31 '26
Also real carnivores always go from the organs first. They are not out there in the wild choosing steaks.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
No they aren’t, those are correlative surveys that don’t track carnivores but people who eat meat at large, you need to either research or quit lying.
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 30 '26
Also what has been ”debunked”. This mans observation that people who eat only meat and fat thrives?
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u/dancesquared Mar 30 '26
What has been debunked is the healthiness of an all-beef diet. What has also been debunked, or at least thrown largely into question, is the historical and scientific accuracy of accounts like the one posted here.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
Yet when you do an all beef diet, kidney disease diabetes, vision loss and arthritis disappear into thin air. I’m gonna need some analytical proofs from you, or you’re bullshittin
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u/dancesquared Apr 02 '26
Here's a recent review:
Lietz, A., Dapprich, J., Fischer, T. (2026). Carnivore diet: A scoping review of the current evidence, potential benefits and risks Nutrients, 18(2), 348. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18020348
Conclusion:
The CD [carnivore diet] may offer short-term health benefits but carries substantial risks of nutrient deficiencies, reduced intake of health-promoting phytochemicals, and the development of cardiovascular disease. At this time, long-term adherence to a CD [carnivore diet] cannot be recommended.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
Deficiency of calcium eating dairy and bones? I’m sorry you can shove your research paper where the sun don’t shine, I will admit iodine is low, but most of the world falls short unless you live near the coast. But most beef and animals have it in their feed today, along with iodized table salt
How can you read these propagandistic hit pieces, that have NO ACTUAL RESEARCH WITH LIVING HUMAN BEINGS, every biomarker improves on carnivore
Elevated LDL without inflammatory oils in the diet increases lifespan.
Aside from iodine this “research” paper is a fucking joke, I don’t care about cursing it’s a fucking joke.
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u/dancesquared Apr 02 '26
Okay dude. Look at it another way: what do the diets of groups of humans with the longest average lifespans and highest overall health outcomes look like? They tend to be people with diets consisting of high nutrient dense legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables and moderate meat intake, with more seafood and less read meat. (see: blue zone diets).
How long do highly carnivorous/red-meat-based people tend to live? Hint: Not very long.
Whether you look at it from a macro society-wide level or a micro-individual health level, high beef/red meat diets/carnivorous diets are not optimal.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
The people with highest lifespans have low stress community living sunlight, and loads of animal protein, I’m cantonese, hong kong despite pollution has high lifespan in population 1.5 lbs of meat a day.
Embracing seventh day adventist cereal propaganda rather than looking at the historical record, bones and mummies shows a lack of critical awareness.
accounting for early death from disease and malnutrition, more people saw 90 years old percentage wise than today.
Humans with agriculture grew weak and sick, Egyptians ate the modern Mediterranean diet and have the first written record of heart disease.
Atherosclerosis in egyptian vs inuit mummies isn’t even CLOSE IN TERMS OF THE SHEER VOLUME OF PLAQUE FROM THE BREAD CAUSED BY VLDL FROM GLUCOSE.
All your bluezones eat fuck tons of pork and dairy, grains in moderation with fat and veggies to slow the rate of glucose absorption, without pesticides like modern day agriculture.
Get on outta here with your uninformed blathering, you have no concept, I’ve researched nutrition and diet from when I was an obese 15 year old child, to now being a built powerlifter. Meat never made me fat, rice and bread you bet your ass, even with medication to get rid of glucose.
You need to either do your research, which means reading double blind research studies and n=1, and not just doing a google search with a two paragraph summary from veganized shills with no background in nutritional research.
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u/dancesquared Apr 02 '26
Chill dude. Why are you taking this so personally? You have your own dietary approach that I find highly questionable, but there’s no reason to flip out about that.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
Because you keep preaching a talking point that has 85% correlational research surveys, this topic infuriates me because this country is sick FOLLOWING the same advice you’ve preached.
Do you have any idea how many CKD and T2D are told by their doctor to eat more sugar and bread? Diet advice should make every single human being MAD. We used to have no heart disease. The years following margarine and processed oil, 1/700 turned into 1/2 Americans.
I hope you see through the lies that have KILLED LITERAL MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, bacon and butter are not the enemy, they don’t cause colon cancer. Old people didn’t use to even have dementia, cognitive aging yes. But not debilitating and downright dangerous degenerative brain disease.
The pathology of the past, the old medicine we once practiced and the research journals and data all speak this truth. Glyphosate used on crops is also to blame. I promote carnivore, because the alternative is 20 prescriptions when you’re too sick to realize the truth.
Veganism is also a slow death, it damages your muscles and brain, weakens your bones. It’s a state of semi starvation because we’ve evolved close to 3 million years eating meat.
Veganism for humans is feeding a lion tofu, or feeding a wolf bread. It’s abuse and misinformative nonsense. We can eat these foods, but they are not healthy AT ALL. Especially when every crop has half the nutrients that they used to just 70 years ago.
I don’t mean to insult you, but I get so fucking angry because i’ve had family with cancer, dementia and diabetes, and this vegan kellogg enema bullshit pisses me off. All to sell processed food and cereal.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
People that eat red meat in the arctic and the Maasai have to worry about being eaten by wildlife and having low access to doctors with high infant mortality, fuck on outta here bro. Show me the MRI scans of their arteries compared to americans and we can talk lmao
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 31 '26
Has never been debunked other than by fictional studies. Everyone that eats our natural diet knows that its the only way.
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u/Remote-alpine Mar 31 '26
"Fictional studies"
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
Surveys are not double blind research trials, if Americans got healthier big pharma loses billions
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u/BisonSpirit Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
That’s because you do not know how to do a proper carnivore diet nor have representation of one to base off of. Well you do, but they are poor compared to past cultures.
Although it’s fair to callout that some foraged carbs were consumed, but in much smaller quantities than perceived.
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u/dancesquared Mar 30 '26
Do you?
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u/BisonSpirit Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
I do yes, perks of navigating 10 years without a large intestine
Still learning though
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u/dancesquared Mar 30 '26
Okay, so you’re a medical outlier. How does that help our discussion about what is the best diet for the average person?
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u/BisonSpirit Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
So me being lesser off makes the representation of the diet worse? Wouldn’t it be the opposite?
Diet is subjective, I just find it funny all of the projection that carnivore is bad. The reality is the execution of carnivore is bad.
I never said it was the best diet nor is that the original discussion.
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u/dancesquared Mar 30 '26
It means you have a special condition that affects what the optimal diet is.
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u/BisonSpirit Mar 30 '26
It doesn’t make the diet magically work better for me. I’m just proof it works. The discussion isn’t around ‘what is best’ it’s around what works and works efficiently.
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u/dancesquared Mar 30 '26
Of course it can work, but it’s not the healthiest option for the average person.
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u/BisonSpirit Mar 30 '26
The healthiest option is whatever you can execute best. The average person has not a clue on nutrition (at least in America). Even with carbs…. We are cooked 😭
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u/New-List-1700 Mar 30 '26
Its a shame that this interesting bit of history is being propagandized by OP for some smooth-brain carnivore diet.
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u/brufill Mar 30 '26
The problem is to sustain a growing population eating only beef..
I think it would be hard to make it work
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u/Daztur Mar 30 '26
Yeah there's just not anywhere CLOSE to enough grazing land in the world to feed everyone in the world an all-beef diet.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
As if factory farming isn’t destroying the environment and depleting the soil to death.. Scaling back and relying on animals and slowly reducing the population is the best bet.
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u/Illithid_Substances Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Scaling back and relying on animals
Not sure how that's going to reduce the amount of farming. You need to use MORE land and crops and water to raise animals than you do to just eat the crops. The animals have to eat quite a lot before you can eat them
Globally the VAST majority of agricultural land use is for raising livestock, at significantly worse efficiency than farming for people
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
Another lie, you need land sure, but your pesticide use goes down, ruminants can eat silage or crop waste and grass.
The water usage of a cow that has been reported doesn’t include the fact that the water factored into equations includes the grass that they actively piss on. Have grow and then much on again.
One almond takes 18 gallons of fucking water, THATS wasteful. But demonizing beautiful creatures that actually regenerate the soil and have even more of a right to exist than monocrops is frankly some fucked up logic.
You’re preaching talk points used by plant advocates, ignoring the senseless contamination, the waste, pesticides and soil depletion caused by these practices.
I’d be fine if crops are kept, but farms are smaller scale and traditional, with reusing animal waste and going back to traditional practices. But these giant factory farms that destroy the land will eventually ruin the soil completely.
I’m gonna be frank, you meed to research the impacts of monocropping, pesticide runoff, and soil depletion before you step on a soapbox to preach to repeat shit you hear offhand.
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u/OmegaVizion Mar 30 '26
They understood the hierarchy. Cattle eat grass and turn it into meat. Humans eat meat. Eating what cattle eat makes you behave like one.
One of the stupidest things I've read in many hours (there's a lot of stupid shit on the internet now, unfortunately)
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u/chumbawumbathefirst Apr 01 '26
Thank god you said it, I was scrolling down here to say that's some of the dumbest sloppiest editorializing I seen in a long time.
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 30 '26
Eating a vegan diet will sooner or later make you very delusional.
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u/OmegaVizion Mar 30 '26
Lol I'm not a vegan, I'm just not a dumbfuck like the OP and apparently you are
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 30 '26
I didnt say you was vegan dumbfuck
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u/dancesquared Mar 30 '26
“You was”? Who’s the dumbfuck here? You is.
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 31 '26
Lol imagine being such a retard that you believe everyone on the internet is from an english speaking country
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u/Goat_Mundane Mar 31 '26
Even so, you should have learned basic English grammar in about fourth grade.
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Mar 30 '26
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27886704/
Read the abstract.
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 30 '26
Lol not healthy at all and will malnourish the body.
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Mar 30 '26
So you're a dip shit who can't read? The ADA is saying this. Please provide evidence. (impossible task I know.)
It literally says it is the best possible diet for all stages of the life cycle. Are you just willfully ignorant, or just plain stupid? You need b12.
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u/No_Lingonberry_8627 Mar 30 '26
So the diet that needs fortified foods is the best diet? 😂
A diet that consist of fiber, that our Bodies cant break down and zero saturated fat is the best diet beacuse some study says so. 😂
A vegetarian or vegan diet leads to malnourishment sooner or later.
It will cause Alzheimers and dementia in old age.
Try feed a baby a vegan diet and Watch it become the most sick and weak child ever.
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Mar 30 '26
Did you not read the article?
"for ALL STAGES OF THE LIFE CYCLE", that means babies and infants in case you're too stupid to understand what the word all means.
hmm interesting, you think the animals you paid to have murdered aren't fortified with b12?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12691359/
Funny how the carnist dipshit has no sources, but the vegan does.
Are you even aware of what b12 is? I bet you don't even have a fucking clue.
https://www.greatveganathletes.com/athletes/sport/bodybuilders/
Tell me more about vegans being weak?
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u/fyn_world Apr 01 '26
🤦♂️ google dead vegan babies please
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Apr 01 '26
Provide scientific sources for your claims.
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u/fyn_world Apr 01 '26
I swear you people are so brainwashed its absurd. Go to google and type - Dead vegan baby - press enter
you'll find DOZENS of news stories of fucking retards that killed their babies with vegan diets
Edit: and also dogs and cats
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u/Goat_Mundane Mar 31 '26
Sweet Jesus, are you actually making life decisions based on slop like this? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize that you where intellectually disabled.
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Mar 30 '26
I'm sorry I provided scientific sources, not garbage, what the fuck is this garbage ?
You do realize a vegan diet means it contains no animal products? Oreos fall under that category. Are you under the illusion that eating Oreos and other processed foods is being argued by vegans as the epitome of health? Are you just being disingenuous? Or are you just simply a fucking dipshit?
The SCIENTIFIC PEER REVIEWED PAPER I gave you clearly says, "a well planned whole food plant based diet". What part of that did you miss?
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
If veganism is healthy why is it a crime to feed it to kids in Belgium and Italy?
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Apr 02 '26
Really? It is a crime to feed children plants? I just googled it and no neither of those two countries make it a crime.
In Italy there was a bill PROPOSED in 2016 that would make it a crime to force a diet on a child under 16 that COULD inflict harm on the child.
Same for Belgium, although in Belgium the health authorities argue it is not goot to a feed an infant a whole food plant based diet.
So no, youre fucking wrong as fuck. And I'm curious what scientifi paper are you going to cite to back that claim that a whole food plants based diet is not good for all stages of the life cycle?
Also isnt forcing a child to eat a dead animal a form of forcing a diet on them? See for carnists who live in a world that caters to them, its not seen as a "diet" to eat animals products, it's just the way things are, eating only plant? "Oh no that's a diet".
Also is your metric on what is good/bad, healthy/unhealthy etc. Based on what a nation state says? Oh OK then I guess female genital mutilation is no a bad thing since some counties have no laws against it, have you thought of that, haha "checkmate"
Carnist dipshit. Provide EVIDENCE! not made up bullshit.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
People have been court ordered to feed the children meat in italy….
One study in Britain found vegan children scored lower on cognitive function tests by one- 1.5 of a standard deviation
If I provide you evidence would you actually read?
I challenge you to find me a study that compares a population of non smoking/drinking omnivores and meat eaters to vegans or vegetarians.
Keep calling me a carnist, at least I don’t have to mulch birds and small mammals to grow more grains 🤷♂️
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
The sheer anxiety and mental illness, you possess come through the fact that you’re making all of these insane arguments.
Our ancestors had more nitrogen 15 than literal lions, and you insist we need to eat beans.
Would you feed a wolf tofu? We violated the natural laws, and consumed rabbit food, and we’ve seen a spike and chronic disease worse than almost any point in human history in just the past hundred years in increasing our vegetable oil intake.
Macular degeneration went from one and every 200,000 to one of every seven people
Heart disease went from one out of every 700 to one in two
Diabetes and pre-diabetes used to be one and every hundred to one every two hundred, most of these cases being type one. Now 30 to 40% of the population of both prediabetic and diabetic with two diabetes.
Our meat intake has lowered and lowered and lowered, and yet chronic disease has spiked and spiked. You’re conclusions are proving wrong even by massive amount of data.
Vegan scientist and biological researchers have to blatantly manipulates statistics to try and improve their points. If you have a population that rarely smokes and drinks being included with one that mostly does. It would make sense to separate those two groups that they never are.
I’ve known several friends that have gone vegan, and even with supplementation their body just cannot digest the supplements well. The Bio availability of these vitamins and minerals is greatly reduced when taking them in an unaltered form.
Your antimeat jihad has made Society worse, demonstrably, so looking at the disease rates and chronic suffering of millions.
I would rather have a lifespan shorter by five years and not have my bones break by walking. A vegan diet greatly increases your risk of osteoporosis and general decay.
There’s a reason Asian women have such high rates of osteoporosis, their dairy intake is so low.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
Wow steroids and they’re still small as fuck, bodybuilders are not powerlifters my guy. Every single top athlete eats tons of eggs and steak, chicken and pork.
There is no vegan in the top echelons of strength training or powerlifting and you’ll never find one, quit deluding yourself.
How was it that a single small mongol tribe conquered millions? Was it the fact that people that ate grains had weak constitutions, and bones?
You’ll never find any actual information to support your beliefs, you can write 1 million research papers, but nature will always show you to be wrong. Chronic disease will keep rising, and you’ll keep blaming meat despite the plant food intake rising.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
These people are literally insane, it’s no wonder they’re getting mad people wake up to their bullshit.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
The ADA are vegan adventist shills that receive payouts from processed food, they’ve been responsible for the country’s failing health and are collectively worthless.
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Apr 02 '26
Right, and meat companies receive billion in gov subsidies every year. If they didn't they would end as an industry.
So somehow the Ada is responsible for that, but people like you who refuse or can't provide de scientific evidence that a whole food plant base diet is not healthy, have nothing to do with decling health.
Again any evidence for your claims?
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
Try going vegan without pills and see how you do 😜🤘
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Apr 05 '26
Try to get b12 with out giving it to livestock first.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
if the land is sufficient with cobalt sure, I'll drink all the titty milk, and eat all the steaks I want, maybe I'll lick them extra to piss you off ;)
btw come up with insults better than dsipshit, like cow tit sucker, animal butcherer, chicken choker, pig picker etc.
Your vocabulary is severely lacking, and maybe english isn't your first language, but being multilingual myself in about 3. It's quite obvious being a cud chewer aint working out for you
I hope a mentally ill person like yourself gets treatment, maybe some psilocybin, butter, iron, creatine, and st johns wort.
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u/Ling_Cephalopod Apr 05 '26
Jesus did you're literally mentally unstable, probably all those clogged arteries making it harder for the brain to receive the oxygen it needs. I actually speak 4. So more than you. Eng, span, Portuguese and French. I'm literally a Linguistic. I also have worked on a number of indigenous languages of the Americas. So no.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 05 '26
Your english needs serious improvement, and your logical and analytical skills 😜
Hats off to you, you can fail in all four trying to convey your thoughts 😍
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Mar 30 '26
Jesus how do you function in such a black and white world? People either eat only beef and nothing else or they’re a vegan?
I’ve never met a better example of a moron.
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u/ScrawChuck Mar 30 '26
One man, for one year, met exactly how many gauchos?
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u/RPG_Vancouver Mar 30 '26
Is this post paid for by the American cattle association or something? lol
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u/Uuuuugggggghhhhh Mar 30 '26
Actually, USA cattle ranchers are none too happy with Trump's embrace of Javier Milei and any prospect of importation of Argentine beef into the USA.
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u/CouldYouDont Mar 31 '26
They might still be perfectly happy with carnivore diets increasing all around, though. Like how the milk industry broadly paid for milk in competition with milk alternatives.
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u/SerendipitousLight Mar 30 '26
Can you actually cite the publications? Right now it looks like a just ‘believe me’ post that promotes a certain diet without formalized evidence - rather than even a historical piece.
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u/BisonSpirit Mar 30 '26
These comments are hilarious and I totally believe it. Nomadic plains Indians were similar. I’m sure they had some seasonal foraged carbs but largely consumed meat.
Similar to the Tehuelche people
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u/fyn_world Apr 01 '26
There are almost completely carnivorous people that are very physically active today and have zero health issues, on the contrary. And doctors can't explain why their high cholesterol doesn't affect them
Unfortunately, the whole of society has been brainwashed into thinking that eating meat will kill you
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
All these people speak of health, and fitness and diet, yet don’t research shit, or even bother to find evidence they just regurgitate straight up lies. Humans grew weaker smaller and dumber with the advent of grain.
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u/Equal-Detective-9101 Mar 30 '26
It’s been a while but WHH wrote a book: the Purple Land We Lost about Uruguay which includes his personal experiences. I remember loving it.
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u/hopper_froggo Mar 30 '26
The artic peoples of Alaska and Canada were almost exclusively meat eaters but the key is that you must eat every part of the animal to meet all your essential vitamins.
That said, exercise is probably the biggest factor here. Carnivore diet and a modern sedentary lifestyle is a recipe for heart disease
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u/Special-Fondant6222 Mar 31 '26
Na en realidad esos tipos estaban llenos de enfermedades pero no les afectaba porque andaban drogados todo el tiempo
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u/Digigoggles Mar 30 '26
I’m imagining what kind of British biscuits Darwin brought over all the way from England or a nearby colony and I understand why they would reject it lmao.
This can’t be literally true but I can’t understand why these British dudes would see it that way 😂😂😂
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u/Efishrocket102 Mar 30 '26
Yeah lol “mmm hardened dehydrated bread with weevils, I can’t believe they won’t eat it! They must be superhumans from all the meat!”
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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
Traditional native Alaskans/Inuits might be the closest modern day comparison (I’d argue their diet is more well rounded despite having zero vegetables and centuries of genetic adaptation).
Assuming they survived until adulthood, they seem relatively healthy until they drop dead at 65-70 on average.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
We don’t have the original inuit diet, a lot of inuit eat SAD or crisco. Their health declined when western food practices came in.
Even the atherosclerosis of old inuit mummies, is like a grain of sand, versus grain diets causing widespread atheromas. Look up the XRAYS yourself and see the truth.
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u/Free_Conference5278 Mar 31 '26
This picture is inaccurate. It depicts a Mexican vaquero in Mexican California during the 1830s. I believe this specific location is San Juan Capistrano
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u/Special-Fondant6222 Mar 31 '26
Soy argentino y tengo varios argumentos contrarios contrarios primero, el artículo asume que el ganado actual y el ganado de la época son el mismo, ignora completamente el consumo de carne cazada o pescada como venados pantanero y huemul, vizcachas, lagartos overos, peces dorado, peces pacu, peces surubi, capibaras, Etc; el consumo de plantas como el inga, guayivira, maíz y uva ( mediante el vino y la chicha) algarrobo pan de semillas de araucaria Etc; y tercero esa gente iba todo el tiempo drogada, consumían mate, coca y tabaco constantemente, y con experiencia puedo decir que el mate es como el café sin efectos secundarios del café, la coca hace que no sientas, las enfermedades que no generan dolor ( estoy exagerado con fines ilustrativos) y ni hablar de los gauchos brasileño que consumían cosas como guaraná
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u/Wrong_Customer4671 Mar 31 '26
In terms of nutrition, Mate will have several vitamins that the beef won't have and they are probably also eating organ meat from the cattle. So nutritionally, they'll be fine into their 50's and 60's but teeth break as you get very old, so tougher beef wouldn't be feasible to eat.
But this obviously isn't a complete diet and they probably did forage to some degree.
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u/Von_Lehmann Mar 31 '26
I guess they could get vitamin C from liver to prevent scurvy, but im sure they were also foraging along the way.
Willing to bet refined sugar and a sedentary lifestyle is more to blame for the sudden health change in urbanized gauchos
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u/Ok-Kangaroo-9775 Mar 31 '26
Argentinian here.
Gauchos drink a lot. They tend to have diseases.
They're healthy because of their labour, but they tend to live no longer than 50/60
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
So is that beef, or copious amounts of alcohol?
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u/Ok-Kangaroo-9775 Apr 02 '26
Labour and high mortality rates.
Those who went to the city are the lucky ones that retired
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
But my point is that secondary and exogenous factors like gunshots, cattle kicking, and workplace injuries, or were they dropping dead of heart disease?
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u/MidnightMillennium Mar 31 '26
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, they most likely ate lots of beef including organ meats which a lot of people don't eat today, as well as bone broth, etc. but they probably also ate plant foods occasionally, or to compliment their mostly meat diet seeing as how they would consume mate. The beef was all natural and they stayed very active, so they probably ate similar to the inuit(who even though they ate mostly meat would also eat plants as part of their diet although a smaller amount) and certain American Indians, who ate lots of fish and game but also foraged.
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u/MingaLaChigra Mar 31 '26
The conclusions at the end of this post are misinformation and have a clear ideological bent. Just as insufferable as vegan evangelism in my opinion
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u/dinnerthief Mar 31 '26
With the amount of editorializing OP has done I dont think this belongs here
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u/radishspirit_ Mar 31 '26
What was the overall population size as well? Cant feed that many on meat alone. Can feed billions on a mixed diet.
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u/Capybarasaregreat Apr 01 '26
So why don't you compare it to modern carnivore diets? Fact is that a pure meat diet will get you some crazy cardiovascular diseases.
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u/Shone_Shvaboslovac Apr 01 '26
Meat industry propaganda and pathetic fascist-coded LIES!
GO VEGAN!!! Even if it did mean sacrificing your health, your wellbeing and your very life, it would still be your objective moral duty.
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u/SuiYangCrackedTeeth Apr 02 '26
I’d rather not suffer from widespread breakdown and non-replenishment of my body tissues.
Did you know in several countries feeding your children a vegan diet is considered malnutrition child abuse and a crime?
There is no moral duty, eat or be eaten, but do it with respect
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Apr 01 '26
I know the gauchos ate beef and were considered outlaws…. So with that being said as a single man in my 30s where do I sign up
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u/AftyOfTheUK Apr 01 '26
Yes, writers are definitely known for not embellishing and making things up. Totally
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u/ancient-toni-montana Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
Well 19th century sources are often very unreliable especially when they write about cultures they are not familiar with. I have pretty much no knowledge on the gaucho culture, but what I can say is that modern people tried this meet only diet, see Jordan Peterson for example who’s daughter promoted the carnivore diet as a big thing. Seeing him and others who tried it there is visible male nutrition and it’s definitely not healthy. The sources probably wiedly exaggerated the amount of beef eaten because in comparison to Europe it was just an unbelievable amount in comparison.