Individuals wanting to lower their cholesterol and saturated fat intake could learn from arctic people, according to an East Carolina University researcher whose expertise in arctic eating habits led to her contributions to a food-and-culture reference.
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Borre
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Kristen Borre, an associate scientist with the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, spent several months with arctic people in Alaska and northern Canada during visits in the 1980s and early 1990s. She studied how they hunt and gather their foods, how they prepare them for eating and storage and other activities related to eating. Some of her findings and observations appear in the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture.
In addition to arctic people’s food, encyclopedia topics range from “Acceptance and Rejection of Food” in volume one to “Zoroastrianism,” a religion in India, in volume three. It contains information about food politics, food as a weapon of war, the history of food production and other topics as well as food culture from all parts of the world.
“Marine mammals are very important in the diet of most people living in the arctic,” Borre said. The Inuit migrated from Asia across Alaska and northern Canada all the way to Greenland, living off whales, seals and walrus they hunted in the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans. When whale populations in the eastern arctic fell sharply in the 19th century, the eastern arctic Inuit turned to seals – primarily harp and ring seals – for their main source of food, Borre said. Alaskan Inuit eat seal, but are primarily still known for whale hunting.
“Seal is wonderful,” Borre said. “Seal has four times the iron of beef. It is higher in all vitamins and minerals of any known meat we eat, except for thiamine, vitamin B1.”
The meat is dark red, like liver. It can be eaten “fresh,” which means raw, safely in the high arctic, due to low temperatures. From 30 minutes to three hours after its death, members of the community gather to eat the meat, bringing their own knives to carve out slices, Borre said.
Seal meat is also low in saturated fat – a condition required by their aquatic lifestyle, Borre said.
“If they had large percentages of saturated fat, the seals would experience the fat in their body solidifying (much like butter in a refrigerator), and they would sink,” she said.
The fat the seal does have is oily and is used for cooking, lamp fuel and as a dip for fish and plants.
According to Inuit culture, seals allow themselves to be taken for food, Borre said. They make their meat available in exchange for hunters respecting nature. Inuit admire seal society, and legends say an Inuit boy lived in the sea with seals, that then sent him back to teach other humans to respect nature.
“Seals taught us values, to share, be patient, take care of one another,” Borre said. “In the myths of the Inuit, all that came from seals.”
Borre said the Inuit hunt seal yearround, but especially during spring sealing camp, which lasts from early May until mid-June. They “cache” their seal meat, burying it in skins on the beach. The meat actually ferments, but because of the cold and proper storage, no harmful bacteria are present and the meat remains safe to eat.
Alaska Inuit still hunt and eat whale, though they avoid killer whales, because whales are meat eaters and are sacred, Borre said. The Inuit feel eating killer whales is somewhat like cannibalism; the beast could have eaten an Inuit relative at some point.
Other Inuit foods include caribou, which has very lean meat similar in flavor to lamb, Borre said. They also eat arctic char and other fish. As for plants, they favor mountain sorrel, a perennial high in vitamin C.
They also eat buckwheat, Eskimo carrot, Eskimo peanut and other plants. They also chew on the inner bark of the willow (Salix species), which contains salicylic acid, a natural fever reducer and pain reliever and a source of aspirin.
Borre said the traditional Inuit diet and lifestyle are healthful. Her cholesterol dropped from 180 to 135 in the months she lived among them, partly from the food and partly from all the work and walking.
Nineteenth-century trade with Russians and Europeans, however, opened the door to sugar, molasses and other foods that were not traditionally available in northern latitudes. The sugar provided valuable energy to help the Inuit on their hunts. Today, however, many Inuit lose their teeth by the time they are adults due to sugar consumption and a lack of good dental care.
Borre would like to return to the region to study diabetes and growth and development among Inuit families.
The three-volume Encyclopedia of Food and Culture was published in 2002 by Charles Scribners and Sons. Solomon H. Katz and William Ways Weaver edited the encyclopedia.
Article
appeared in Pieces of Eight, May 20, 2005 edition.
Complete
issue is archived at http://www.news.ecu.edu/poe/505/arch505.htm
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