Study urges more money to help Nunavut Inuit choose better food

Sugary drinks, which are expensive to buy, also contribute too much sugar to the diet of many in Nunavut, a new study shows.

Many adults in Nunavut like traditional foods, but junk food and sweet drinks are also a big — and unhealthy — part of the daily diet.

A recent study, which surveyed what 211 Nunavut adults in three communities ate over a one-month period, found caribou, muktuk and Arctic char are the most widely-consumed traditional foods.

But it also found high-energy, nutrient-poor foods and sugar-sweetened beverages are widely consumed as well, with sugary drinks providing about three times as many calories a day than recommended.

That amount of extra sugar can increase the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Researchers in the study, published last month in the Nutrition Journal, say that more money for prevention programs and public health policies would help Inuit in Nunavut to eat better.

These would also save money in the long run, they say.

That’s because reducing the risk factors for heart disease and diabetes among Nunavut’s young population could be expected to produce “substantial returns in the long term in the form of greatly reduced medical costs and increased longevity and quality of life for its citizens,” say the three researchers involved in the study: Tony Sheehy Cindy Roache and Sangita Sharma, who also worked on the “Healthy Stores” program to promote snacks with less sugar in Nunavut communities.

Failure to put money into new programs and policies “would place its health care system under an increasingly unsustainable burden as its young population ages,” says their study, funded by the American Diabetes Association and the Government of Nunavut’s health department.

Among other things, the researchers suggest that future programs to reduce obesity and diet-related chronic diseases in these and other Inuit communities could look at even simple measures, such as promoting the popularity of soups, which can be nutrititious and filling.

For the study, researchers looked at portion sizes of traditional and non-traditional foods — 150 in all — which people in three unnamed Nunavut communities ate over a 30-day period.

Their study found many participants are drinking too many sweetened beverages. The average portion sizes are also large. Even two cans of pop provide 275 to 320 extra calories a day, the study noted. That’s more than three times the 100 calories per day from added sugars recommended for women and twice the 150 calories per day from added sugars recommended for men.

“This suggests that Inuit consumers in these communities would need to reduce portion sizes of sugar-sweetened beverages by a very considerable margin and to replace them with water, tea or coffee (provided that caloric sweeteners and whiteners are used sparingly) or with diet- or sugar-free varieties of the same products,” the study says.

The study also found fruit and vegetable consumption by Inuit in these three communities is generally low.

About three-quarters of participants consumed apples, bananas, grapes or oranges and approximately 60 per cent consumed canned fruit or fruit cocktail.

And slightly more than half the participants consumed carrots, corn, or frozen vegetables, but “consumption of other vegetables was limited, both in terms of variety and amount consumed.”

The study also found:

• more than 85 per cent of participants consumed fried bannock;

• milk was consumed by more than half the participants;

• more than three-quarters of participants reported consuming potato chips and pilot biscuits;

• least half the participants consumed cakes/muffins, chocolate, cookies and crackers; and,

• alcoholic beverages were consumed by less than one-third of participants.