INUVIK - If Dr. Lisa Mu had her way, a lot more money would be pumped into initiatives like the Healthy Foods North program, which she says is a simple but effective way at improving health through better nutrition.

"It's hugely important," she said. "Programs like this are probably the most effective way that we can spend money on improving health for a population. It's much more effective than spending it on an acute care hospital."

Dr. Sangita Sharma, Healthy Foods North lead researcher, gave an update on the program at Aurora College on Oct. 8. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

Mu, who's been practising at the Inuvik Regional Hospital for the last two months, attended the program's latest community update held at Aurora College on Oct. 8. She was among several local health care workers, residents and program employees on hand to hear Dr. Sangita Sharma, Healthy Foods North's lead researcher, explain some of its research results and initiatives introduced by the program over the last 12 months.

Split into five phases, the program has had staff hold healthy food tastings at grocery stores, run a pedometer challenge program to get people walking more, and provide healthy recipes centring on traditional foods.

Mu liked what she saw at the presentation but said more needs to be done to help Inuvik and other Northern populations overcome high rates of obesity.

"So many of the problems that we see (at the hospital) are related to things like nutrition, especially for the children and young women of reproductive age. Diabetes and heart disease is not as huge for the Inuit. But it is for the Gwich'in and the Caucasian Northerners who live here.

"I think that Healthy Foods North is kind of a no-brainier. Eating well is going to promote better health overall. It's important."

Healthy Foods North also runs similar programs in three communities in Nunavut, as well as Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok. Those two communities along with Inuvik are included in a research component of the program.

Before the Healthy Foods North program began, 70 Inuvialuit residents from each of the three communities were randomly chosen. Researchers collected information such as how much these residents were spending on food; what types of food they were consuming; their height and weight and physical activity levels.

Now that the program is done, the same measurements will be collected again, to see whether the initiatives introduced during the program influenced participants to eat healthier.

Staff members are now compiling the data for analysis.

Research conducted before the program revealed some disturbing facts. It showed residents spend on average $5,000 a year on pop alone and eat only two servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Youth had very low intakes of fibre, iron and protein compared to elders who eat more traditional food.

After talking to people in the communities as well as grocery store owners, Sharma said she knows many have benefited from the program.

"It's hard to change a habit and eating is habitual practice," she said. "Seventy per cent of cancers can be prevented by improving nutrition. If you show people how to do it and you give them the tools and education, then you hope they can succeed."

Sharma is waiting to see if the territorial government will replenish the funding for the program, which ends Jan. 1. If that happens, she said one if its priorities would be to zero in on children, which she said might involve adding more nutrition education into the curriculum as well as increasing healthy eating programs in schools.

Mu said she hopes the funding will come through and that community involvement will grow.

"I think we have a responsibility to provide the information that people need in order to make healthy food choices," she said.

"We try to provide the information but sometimes it just doesn't stick. I don't know exactly how to change that. I think it will probably have to come from communication with the elders and engagement with the whole community, starting out with the children. You try in every direction and hopefully it gets through."