Local Cultural Animal Food Contributes High Levels of Nutrients for Arctic Canadian Indigenous Adults and Children1,

Abstract

Food systems of Canadian Arctic Indigenous Peoples contain many species of traditional animal and plant food, but the extent of use today is limited because purchased food displaces much of the traditional species from the diet. Frequency and 24-h dietary interviews of Arctic adults and children were used to investigate these trends. The most frequently consumed Arctic foods were derived from animals and fish. In adults these foods contributed 6-40% of daily energy of adults. Children ate much less, 0.4-15% of energy, and >40% of their total energy was contributed by "sweet" and "fat" food sources. Nevertheless, for adults and children, even a single portion of local animal or fish food resulted in increased (P < 0.05) levels of energy, protein, vitamin D, vitamin E, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, iron, zinc, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium; although children had similar results for these nutrients, they did not reach significance for energy, vitamin D, or manganese. Because market foods are the major source of energy in the Arctic, traditional animal-source foods are extremely important to ensure high dietary quality of both adults and children.