Hi Howard,
I hope you've recovered from your eye op.
I don't know about the steroids, but John McDougall is certain that a starch based diet gives distance runners an advantage -
" Historically the Tarahumara are known to run distances of up to 200 miles in a competitive sport of “kickball” races, lasting several days. Honoring their abilities is the 50-mile foot race called “Ultramaraton Caballo Blanco.” These men and women are noted for their absence of obesity and diabetes, and their very low levels of cholesterol and blood pressure. Carbohydrates, primarily from corn, beans, and squash, make up almost 80% of their diet, and meat consumption is rare.
The exceptional running abilities of the Tarahumara are not due to a genetic advantage. People from the same ancestral linage, the Pima of Southwestern US, have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and coronary heart disease in the world as a direct consequence of adopting a diet based on meat, dairy, and junk food less than a century ago.
Runners from Kenya have set astonishing middle- and long-distance running records. Kenyan men have accounted for 40% of the winners in all major international middle- and long-distance running competitions between 1987 and 1997. Like the Tarahumara, they follow a diet of about 80% carbohydrates. The staple of their diet is bread, boiled rice, poached potatoes, boiled porridge, cabbage, kidney beans, and ugali (well-cooked cornmeal molded into balls)."
https://www.drmcdougall....t-low-carb-vs-high-carb/