In: Indigenous People's Food Systems by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment. Chapter 1. p. 9-22.
In: Indigenous People's Food Systems by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment. Chapter 1. p. 9-22.
Evidence of nutrition and epidemiologic transition in Inuit communities prompted a case study where traditional knowledge and traditional food is used as a basis for a community health-promotion effort to help improve overall diet quality including healthy market food choices. The current Inuit diet in the Baffin community involves a mix of traditional and market food. Caribou was the most commonly consumed traditional food item. Overall, 41 percent of energy was obtained from traditional food among 62 percent of respondents reporting traditional food consumption within the past 24 hours in the community health screening. Simultaneously, 58 percent of adults reported consuming an average of two cans of carbonated beverages in the past day, amounting to 10 percent of energy intake. Furthermore, the percent of n-3 fatty acids in plasma as a marker of traditional food consumption was inversely related to the percent of transfat in plasma as a marker of unhealthy market food choices (Spearman rho = -.44, p-value =.01). The data illustrate that traditional food is replaced by unhealthy market food choices.
A high prevalence of metabolic syndrome was observed (34 percent of 47 non-diabetic participants) using the new International Diabetes Federation criteria. Further, food insecurity was commonly reported, with 48 percent indicating that it was true or sometimes true that they “eat less or skip a meal because there isn’t enough money to buy food”; and 28 percent indicating “yes” to “in the last month there was not enough to eat in your house”. Fortunately, nearly all respondents (82 percent) indicated that friends and relatives shared their traditional food. The data illustrate that costs of market food items need to be considered in health promotion campaigns, and that traditional food promotion and sharing networks can help mitigate the rapid acculturation and transitions being observed. Finally, using traditional knowledge of indigenous food systems may be an effective way to promote healthy market food choices in an effort to prevent the adverse effects of acculturation.