Fat chance

Western notions about the traditional Inuit diet usually don’t include the full menu.

- Jennifer Bowden

Question: I have often wondered how populations with diets highly restricted by geography and climate manage to get all the essential nutrients they need. For example, how do the indigenous peoples of the Arctic Circle stay healthy on a diet of dried cod and seal? Are they below par healthwise, or have their systems become accustomed to this diet after generations?

Answer: Humans inhabit some of the harshest environments on Earth, successfully sustaining their communities everywhere, from arid deserts and hypoxic high altitudes to the extreme cold of the Arctic Circle. How do they do it? It’s an intriguing story of genetic adaptation and making the most of all available food resources.

A range of communities live within the Arctic Circle, which includes parts of Alaska, Canada, Russia and Greenland. The Inuit, indigenous people who have long lived in northern Canada, parts of Greenland and Alaska, are renowned for their predominantly animal-based diet. But don’t let those meaty headlines fool you. They eat more than just meat and animal fat.

Traditionally living as hunter-gatherers, the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic get most of their dietary energy (75%) from animal fat. Their animal-rich diet includes marine and terrestrial mammals (such as seals and caribou/ reindeer), wild birds and fish, which means they are eating a lot of heart-healthy omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. They eat their meat and fish raw, cooked or fermented, which alters the availability of essential nutrients.