Marty Brown
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Nov 25/98) - "You are what you eat" is a saying your mother may have told you.

Or what about: "You eat junk food, your body won't be strong" or "finish your meat, you need strong bones".

Well, one women will soon be gathering information about people's eating habits, but it won't be your mother. Ninety people from Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet and Rankin Inlet will be asked about their eating habits.

Maggie Amarualik and Clara Airut will be helping fill out questionnaires on the dietary habits of Keewatin residents. It's all part of a study being conducted by McGill University for the Centre for Indigenous People's Nutrition and Environment this year.

"We want to know what types and amounts of country and store bought food people are eating. We want to know the level of nutrients in peoples diets. We are also collecting food samples to test for contaminants so we can advise people what to eat and how much," said Amy Ing, regional co-ordinator for the project.

The results should be able to tell residents whether contaminated country food is better or worse for them than refined food. Then the cultural element has to be taken into consideration.

"People feel strongly about country food."

The four-part questionnaire takes about an hour to fill out and asks how often families eat country foods and what kinds. The second part wants to know what people ate yesterday.

This information will be analyzed by taking a calorie count, a vitamin and mineral count and an analysis for both sexes.

"It's very important we know how much sugar and how much butter people use a day, six spoons of sugar or one. Names will never be associated with the questionnaire. People were chosen from a voters' list."

The third set of questions delves into the social and cultural aspect of eating, comfort foods, foods associated with family traditions, survival aspect of food and family favourites.

The fourth part is a seven-day food record, including serving sizes.

This survey is the first in the Keewatin. In 1992, 16 communities in the Western Arctic were surveyed and 10 in the Yukon in 1994.

The data will be analyzed, a preliminary report will then be written and presented in the regions. People will provide feedback, and in about two years, the final report will be presented to the community.