Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Monday, July 23, 2007

INUVIK - In the past 100 years, the world of Northern people - and especially what they eat - has changed immeasurably.

Audra Donison holds a balanced meal with vegetables, fish, rice and grains on July 16. As a nutritionist with the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority, she recently helped write a cookbook published in NWT communities, which will promote healthy eating through traditional food. - Philippe Morin/NNSL photo

Some of these changes have improved people's health, like greater access to fruits, whole grains and vegetables.

But other trends like the abundance of cheap sugar and fat in modern foods have caused obesity, heart problems, and even contributed to diabetes.

Nutritionist Audra Donison says in many ways, people were healthier in the days of country foods.

But as habits have changed - meaning people get less exercise and all-traditional diets have become less common - people need to be reminded about healthy eating, and even the value of their ancestors' diets.

Last March, Donison joined Inuvik's Barbara Armstrong, Andrea Godfreyson and Shannon O'Hara in creating a book called the Inuvialuit Healthy Living Cookbook.

It features traditional foods like whitefish, char, muskox, reindeer and caribou, which are prepared in healthy ways - but sometimes with a modern twist like curry, rice or steamed vegetables.

"Traditional meats are actually much leaner and higher in protein than beef," said Donison on July 16, as she prepared a family meal.

"Also, we have the good fortune of having lots of fish in the NWT."

Part of the cookbook is related to an IRC study called "Monitoring our Mothers," which recently travelled to Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik to perform tests on pregnant women.

The study looked for traces of PCBs and mercury in women's hair, to determine the safety of traditional foods being consumed.

Project manager Armstrong said the results were overwhelmingly positive, and the program will be expanded into different Beaufort Delta communities.

To spread the good news about traditional foods, the IRC and the health authority will host cooking demonstrations across the Beaufort Delta next month, in Aklavik Aug. 14, Ulukhaktok Aug. 15 to 17 and Paulatuk Aug. 19 to 21.

At that time, a second edition of the cookbooks will be distributed and residents might win prizes like rice cookers.

"We thought a cooking show would be the perfect release for it, because the whole point is that traditional foods are good for you. That's the theme of the cookbook, so it made sense to distribute it and have a visual demonstration," said Armstrong.

Modern-day nutritionists like Donison use the language of proteins, vitamins and carbohydrates to explain what people once traditionally knew.

Country foods are good for you, and the best food is usually made at home.