The Lean, Thriving People Who Primarily Eat Carbohydrate, Sugar, Fat, Saturated Fat, Flesh, and Guts

Kitavans are lean, thriving people who live on an island that’s part of Papua New Guinea.

Kitavans don’t get type-2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

What’s their secret?

Going low-carb? Going low-fat? Eliminating all sugar? Eliminating all saturated fat?

That’s not it. (This article works best if you follow this link for a moment.

But their way of eating is, in fact, a big part of their well-being.

Kitavans, who live as subsistence farmers who also fish, eat very well. They always have an abundance of nutrilicious food. Their staples are:

1. Coconuts
2. Fish
3. Fruit
4. Tubers

Coconuts are made up of more than 75-percent fat along with small amounts of carbohydrate and protein.

The fat in coconuts is about 90-percent saturated fat.

Fruit is made up of more than 90-percent carbohydrate with small amounts of fat and protein.

The carbohydrate in fruit is about 75-percent sugar.

Let’s pause here for a moment and make something perfectly clear:

Kitavans, who don’t get type-2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease, have as food staples high-carbohydrate and high-fat foods.

And not just any carbohydrate, they eat a lot of sugar.

And not just any fat, they eat a lot of saturated fat.

If your world is being rocked, hang in there. We’ll get through this together.

Maybe they’re vegetarians? No, that’s not it either. Remember, Kitavans are island people who regularly eat fish. They eat a wide variety of both finfish and shellfish and eat every part except for the bones, gallbladders, and scales of finfish and, of course, the shells of shellfish. This means they eat fish guts. They eat fish eggs too. Fish eggs are particularly popular with Kitavan children.

(If you think you’re wealthy living in the suburbs feeding your kids GoGurt while you’re rushing around in your borrowed (the bank owns it) crossover vehicle to get back to your borrowed (the bank owns it) colonial house, consider the fact that Kitavan kids are regularly eating caviar while living on an island paradise with their debt-free parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents.)

Kitavans are also big fans sweet potatoes, yams, and other tubers which are staples for them since they grow so well in Kitava.

Tubers are made up of more than 90-percent carbohydrate along with small amounts of fat and protein.

If you’re wondering why news anchors are always telling you to cut carbohydrate and fat (depending on the week), my hunch is they’re spending too much time working on their spray tans and permanent fake smiles to be well-informed. Let’s stand out from the crowd and inform ourselves with the conclusions drawn from researchers who’ve conducted scientific studies with the Kitavans as their subjects:

“The Kitavans provide one of the last opportunities to study humans who are uninfluenced by Western dietary habits. The low fasting insulin concentrations that do not increase with age suggest high insulin sensitivity in this very lean population. In conjunction with a low BMI and diastolic blood pressure, this may partly explain the virtual absence of cardiovascular disease among Kitavans.” (1)

“The population is characterized by extreme leanness (despite food abundance), low blood pressure, low plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 activity, and rarity of cardiovascular disease. Tubers, fruit, fish, and coconut are dietary staples whereas dairy products, refined fat and sugar, cereals, and alcohol are absent and salt intake is low.” (2)

“On the island of Kitava, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, a subsistence lifestyle, uninfluenced by western dietary habits, is still maintained. Tubers, fruit, fish and coconut are dietary staples. Of the total population, 1816 subjects were estimated to be older than 3 years and 125 to be 60-96 years old. The frequencies of spontaneous sudden death, exertion-related chest pain, hemiparesis, aphasia and sudden imbalance were assessed by semi-structured interviews in 213 adults aged 20-96. Resting electrocardiograms (ECG’s) were recorded in 119 males and 52 females. No case corresponding to stroke, sudden death or angina pectoris was described by the interviewed subjects. Minnesota Code (MC) items 1-5 occurred in 14 ECG’s with no significant relation to age, gender or smoking. ST items (MC 4.2 and 4.3) were found in two females and Q items (MC 1.1.2, 1.3.2 and 1.3.3) in three males. Stroke and ischaemic heart disease appear to be absent in this population.” (3)

Now you know about Kitavans, the lean, thriving people who primarily eat carbohydrate, sugar, fat, saturated fat, flesh, and guts.

Kitavans aren’t eating low-fat coconuts. They’re not eating I Can’t Believe It’s Not a Coconut. They’re eating full-fat, full-saturated-fat, full-flavor, full-life coconuts. They’re not eating low-carb sweet potatoes or low-sugar mangos either.

Fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, and sugar are…wait for it…wait for it…wait for it…nutrients. Nutrients that naturally occur in whole, natural, real food.

There aren’t good and bad nutrients. Bad nutrient is an oxymoron.

Kitavan food hasn’t been destroyed by industry. That’s all. That’s their secret. All whole, natural, real food, from spinach to almonds to venison to raspberries and everywhere in between—all whole, natural, real food—is nutritious. The key is to leave it alone and not mess with it.

Some people will hear about Kitavans and mistakenly think coconuts, fish, fruit, and tubers are superfoods. They’re not. There’s no such thing as a superfood. Coconuts, fish, fruit, and tubers are simply Kitavans’ local foods.

To emphasize this point, none of you “food”-entrepreneur types (who don’t make food, but make food-like packaged goods) should go out and make Kitava Bars from coconuts, red snapper, bananas, and yams and put a drawing of a Kitavan lifting a barbell on the package. Kativans aren’t doing boot camp, and taking food and processing the crap out of it to make a shelf-stable snack bar is exactly the problem. Don’t be the problem.

There aren’t food villains, and there aren’t food heroes.

There’s junk food, food that’s been processed, and there’s whole, natural, real food, food that’s been left alone.

Junk food contains harmful substances and is devoid of nutrients.

Whole, natural, real food contains nothing harmful and is full of nutrients.

If you’re ready to be done obsessing over nutrients, if you’re ready to let your food villains go, you’re now free to do so.

Just eat real food and really enjoy it.

(1) Low Serum Insulin in Traditional Pacific Islanders—The Kitava Study. Metabolism, 1999, 10.1016/s0026-0495(99)90258-5.
(2) Age Relations of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Traditional Melanesian Society: The Kitava Study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1997, 10.1093/ajcn/66.4.845.
(3) Apparent Absence of Stroke and Ischaemic Heart Disease in a Traditional Melanesian Island: A Clinical Study in Kitava. Journal of Internal Medicine, 1993, 10.1111/j.1365-2796.1993.tb00986.x.

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.