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KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER - Clyde River's community lifestyle has drawn national attention.

The small Baffin hamlet is one of eight aboriginal communities in Canada whose health, nutrition and fitness programs are being studied as role models in preventing diabetes.

The research is being undertaken by Barbara Paterson and Jennifer Dobbelsteyn of the University of New Brunswick. Dobblesteyn said the goal of the project was to document the practices of communities such as Clyde River and share them with the rest of Canada, to provide people with ideas on how to improve their community's health.

Inuit have lower rates of diabetes than the national Canadian average, in contrast to rates among First Nations, which are much higher than average. Dobbelsteyn points to the loss of traditional food and active lifestyle among First Nations, which Inuit have been more successful in maintaining.

The community also has a hip-hop crew, the school's lunch program and exercise program available in the gym every weekday evening.

Through an interpreter Regilee Piungituq, an elder from the community, said she is glad such programs are happening here. She also said that it may be good to combine the qallunaat way of exercising with how the Inuit used to do their diet.

Piungituq criticized the general trend she sees away from traditional country foods. Every year there are fewer people eating country food, or adding foreign elements such as salt, pepper or vegetables, she said. Dobbelsteyn said she was impressed after speaking to elders about the traditional Inuit lifestyle and diet.

"It was a very interesting time," she said. "There's so much they have to offer. They have lived a life of experience and they've seen more difficult times but they've seen things done in a better way. When this generation goes there'll be no one left who remembers that."

Dobbelsteyn is particularly concerned about the consumption of pop. She's heard that Clyde River's two stores can sell 70 cases of pop a day between them.

The drinks are immensely popular among young people, but the high sugar intake can have bad health effects. Nunavut's director of medical affairs Dr. Sandy Macdonald predicted if Inuit continue to be less active and eat more unhealthy foods, the rates of diabetes will increase. The most recently settled communities in the Kivalliq region have the lowest rates of diabetes, he said.

Dr. Geraldine Osborne, Nunavut's deputy chief medical officer of health, echoed Macdonald's concerns. She said marine mammal meat such as seal and maktaaq contained a particular fatty acid that helped prevent diabetes. As Inuit move away from a traditional diet, they lose that protection.