>I found an interesting paragraph about Masais in a french book. Here is the
>translation in (bad) English:

>The Masai tribe (Kenya) is composed of tall, strong persons who ingest
>milk, blood and meat. Their dentition is splendid, their intellectual
>capacities are developed ; they are excellent doctors and veterinarians,
>and they thrive essentially on breeding and hunting.

Masai's peculiar food habits have been studied extensively by many
anthropologists (see Jansen,  1953)
The large proportion of Raf in their diet and their overall  sound health
has been used as an argument  by anthropologists to debunk vegetarian
thesis.  One of the oddities of their diet is that they blood and milk
their herds (they take  the blood directly from the veins in the neck  of
the animals but  they leave enough blood for the animal to survive). Blood
and Milk is never  heated before consumption. The rest of their diet relies
heavily on gathering of wild foods especially amongst youngsters.
The fact that they drink large quantities of milk should prove a
disadvantage for them, if we are to follow the precepts  of
instinctotherapy. As a matter of fact, their tallness can be accounted for
by their milk drinking. Amongst extant hunter gatherers , the Masai are
quite unique for their tall size and their reliance on animal milk. REports
on Masai health i do not kow about - health status, generally considered as
"overall good". HOwever, I would point out that studies on adaptation
physiology concur in saying that  a small stature is an advantage when
living in the tropical/equatorial zone (the more skin surface the higher the
evapo-perspiration...). So that the milk diet would not be all  benefit to
the happy Masai .  Anthropologist are very keen to defend their protegees ,
so that they very seldom avoid reporting the negative side ...

Another interesting feature of these people  is their  proximity with the
Kikuyus. While  Masai's economic activity  centers on cattle raising,
Kikuyus are very much involved in agricultural  techniques . The two  goups
live almost side by side but ignore each other. Kikuyu's diet relies heavily
on (cooked) cereals and sweet potatoes, while  goats  are raised
essentially for exchange and prestige. Not surprisingly Kikuyus suffer from
anemia, bone malformation, and other deficiency disease.

Anthropologists have used the Masai-Kikuyu paradox to refute the idea of
innate wisdom in selecting their diet. Their (entirely wrong) argument was
that if human beings had some sort of instinct, at least one could expect
that people living in the same ecological niche would make similar dietary
choice. Of course we all know too well the fallacy of this argument. The
reason behind Kikuyus "lost wisdom"  looks very clear to us, but it remains
a paradox for food anthropologists.

Denis