Dietary Intake in a Population Undergoing a Rapid Transition in Diet and Lifestyle: The Inuvialuit in the Northwest Territories of Arctic Canada

Abstract

nuvialuit in Canada's Western Arctic have been living by hunting and gathering for approximately 1,000 years. 1 Two activities define traditional Inuvialuit identity: harvesting of traditional foods (TF) and its redistribution or sharing. 2,3 Like most Indigenous peoples in North America, 4-6 Inuvialuit face extreme pressure to acculturate to Western values, including transitioning to a Western diet. 7,8 Traditional foods, defined as those harvested from the local environment, include animals obtained directly from the land or sea, which contributed largely to dietary intake and were vital to nutrition, health, and food security. However, drastic climate changes pose environmental stress on those animals (e.g., polar bear, seal and caribou) that are TF sources. 9,10 Foods that replace TF are mainly processed, high in sugar and fat, and much less nutrient-dense. This shift in diet has resulted in a decreased intake of many micronutrients 11-14 and is associated with increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic disease in Indigenous peoples in the Arctic. 15,16 Prevalence of diabetes in Indigenous North Americans is 3-5 times that of the general population in Canada. 17 The prevalence of risk factors of diabetes, such as overweight and obesity, is higher among the Canadian Aboriginal population compared to the general population. 18,19 Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop a nutritional intervention program to improve dietary intake for chronic disease prevention. Despite the known effectiveness of risk reduction interventions for obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases, 20 few nutritional intervention programs for Inuvialuit have been successful. Furthermore, there is little up-to-date data on Inuvialuit diet, particularly the diet during transition to a Western diet. The aims of this study were to: 1) characterize diet in Inuvialuit; 2) highlight foods and nutrients for a community-based multiinstitutional nutritional and lifestyle intervention program; and 3) develop a Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (QFFQ) to evaluate the program and monitor nutrition transition in Inuvialuit.

Improving vitamin A and D intake among Inuit and Inuvialuit in Arctic Canada: evidence from the Healthy Foods North study

“…After identifying the dietary inadequacy of essential nutrients such as vitamins A and D,19 20 intake of traditional foods rich in these nutrients were promoted as part of the programme's intervention. Although there was only a 4% increase in the proportion of participants adhering to the DRI postintervention, the increase of dietary vitamin D intake following intervention may play an important role in adherence to recommended intakes.…”

“…The 24 h recall is often favoured for assessing dietary adequacy since it is not limited to a food list, which may lead to the omission of some consumed foods. However, with input from local residents, the community-specific QFFQs were developed to capture most foods among a limited list of accessible foods in the communities 19 20. The relative short period of the diet intake assessment (past 30 days) is a limitation for this study to overcome the possible confounding effect of seasonality and to extend the intervention effect on long-term intakes of nutrients of interest.…”

“…Culturally appropriate quantitative food frequency questionnaires (QFFQ) previously developed19 20 and validated21 22 for the populations were used to assess dietary intake. The questionnaire collected information on the typical frequency of food and beverage consumption over the past 30-day period classified into eight categories ranging from ‘never’ to ‘2 or more times per day’.…”

Frequency of consumption of foods and beverages by Inuvialuit adults in Northwest Territories, Arctic Canada

“…The strengths of this study include the use of a culturally appropriate and validated QFFQ developed based on 24-hour dietary recalls with input from local staff and the communities (Sharma et al 1996;Sharma et al 2009) and with experience from previous studies (Sharma et al 2007, Sharma et al 2008Sharma et al 2010aSharma et al , 2010b. The QFFQ was chosen for assessing food consumption patterns in this study because it has advantages over 24-hour dietary recalls, including lower participant burden, which is an important factor in large population-based dietary studies (Cade et al 2004).…”

“…A culturally appropriate QFFQ that had been developed specifically and validated for Inuvialuit populations in these communities was used to collect data on frequency of consumption of foods and beverages (Sharma et al 2009;Pakseresht and Sharma 2010). Data on demographic information and the socioeconomic status (SES) of the participants were also collected.…”