The Inuit, who inhabit various regions in the Arctic and Subarctic, have a traditional diet based mostly on wild game, fish and seafood. Their indigenous food is rich in protein and healthy fats. Chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer, which plague Western societies, have been found to be low in Inuits who consume their traditional foods.
History
Since ancient times, the Inuit have inhabited the northern regions of Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Greenland as hunter-gatherers. Their native foods include whales, seals, musk ox, caribou, fish, shellfish, and plants such as seaweed and berries. Unlike the modern Western diet, the traditional Inuit diet contains no processed food or white sugar. As well as being rich in protein, it also has high amounts of minerals, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.
Benefits
In contrast to most of the fat in Western diets, the fat in the traditional Inuit diet contains large amounts of monounsaturated fats from game, and polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in coldwater fish and marine mammals. These fats are associated with greater birth weight, as well as less cardiovascular disease in adults. Selenium, an essential mineral also found in seafood, protects against mercury and is thought to protect against cancer and atherosclerosis.
Western Diet
Unlike the Inuit diet, the Western diet is high in saturated fat, hydrogenated/trans-fats, salt, sugar and white flour. These foods have been associated with obesity, heart disease, atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes, which are major causes of mortality. In northern Quebec, Inuit adults over 40 who still eat a diet of half native foods have half the cardiac death rate of Americans.
Changes
As Inuit societies have become more urbanized, their diet has gradually changed to include many Western foods. As a result, younger Inuits are increasingly subject to health problems similar to those in Western societies. For example, obesity among northern Quebec Inuits has grown to 28 percent, which is 50 percent higher than it was in 1992. In addition, the incidence of high blood pressure has more than doubled.
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