Diet & Health: The Consequence
Diet & Health: The Consequences of a Shift from a Traditional Lifestyle in Greenland It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the issues surrounding the ongoing shift from a traditional lifestyle to that of a modern-western lifestyle, as it is being experienced by the Kalaallit Inuit of Greenland. The paper that follows focuses upon how the incorporation of imported foods into the Kalaallit diet is affecting the health of the population. This issue is discussed in regard to the rise of so-called "diseases of civilization", including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cancer. It is shown that the suppression of these diseases may be directly related to the traditional marine diet of the Inuit. Accordingly, there have been many proponents for the continued consumption of marine foods, especially marine mammals. Yet, as it is shown below, the marine mammals are now among the most toxic life-forms on the planet. A recent survey taken of adult Greenlandic Inuit, known as Kalaallit, to gather information about the people's preference for and frequency of consumption of selected traditional and imported food items showed that traditional food was well liked in all age groups. Thoug
Though the same trends in the association between obesity and metabolic effects among the Inuit and a white population exist, the levels of the risk factors were significantly different. One of the most important differences between the traditional Kalaallit diet and that of the modern North American is that while both obtain about forty percent of the caloric intake from fat, the North American diet is comprised of mostly saturated fats and the Kalaallit's diet is comprised mostly poly-unsaturated fats (Dyerberg 1989). Healthy humans may average as high as less than 1 part per million. Race-dependent health risks of upper body obesity. Many of the foods we eat - such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, milk and fruit - are converted into sugar and give us the energy we need to maintain life. PubMedMeneely G, Battarbee H: High sodium-low potassium environment and hypertension. Concentrations of heavy metals and organochlorines in marine mammals of northern waters overview and evaluation. As was the case with hypertension, Greenland has seen rapid rise in the prevalence rate of diabetes so that the rate is now somewhere around 100/1000. The composition of the Eskimo food in northwestern Greenland. Despite the fact that the Inuit may or may not be the possessors of a thrifty genotype, they still are bearing the weight of the public health epidemic that is obesity and the all evidence so far points to a change in eating and exercise habits as the major factor causing this epidemic. For example, in the 1970s there was not a single death due to cardiovascular disease in the hunting district of Uummannaq with about 3,000 inhabitants. The last few generations have seen extensive lifestyle changes in many of the Arctic peoples, leading to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Type two diabetes is most prevalent in native populations.
Common topics in this essay:
Meneely Battarbee,
Canada Bjerregaard,
Canadian Inuit,
Atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis,
Inuit Kalaallit,
Inuit Greenland,
Index BMI,
Kolaczynski Caro,
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et al,
traditional foods,
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developing countries,
eaton et,
marine mammals,
et al 2001,
eaton et al,
risk factors,
al 2001,
et al 1988,
heart disease,
al 1988,
pars et al,
shift traditional lifestyle,
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