Scientists have explained why residents of the Far North eat a lot of fat and don’t get sick

Experts tell us how residents eat Far North and thanks to this they remain healthy. Yamal 1 writes about this.

In Arctic conditions, the usual principles of healthy eating do not work. Thus, the Nenets eat venison (dried, salted and raw), the Chukchi and Inuit eat walrus or seal meat. Studies from the early 20th century showed that almost half of the Inuit diet came from fats, about 40% from proteins and less than 10% from carbohydrates. An adult man could eat one and a half kilograms of meat and 160 grams of fat per day.

Despite the lack of vegetables and fruits, northerners get all the necessary vitamins from the meat of deer and sea animals. The fat of fish and marine mammals contains valuable polyunsaturated acids with high biological activity, which protect against scurvy.

A special physiology helps digest such heavy foods. Among indigenous northerners, the acidity of gastric juice is much higher than normal, and the gastric mucosa is thicker than among residents of the middle zone. For a European, such indicators would result in gastritis, but for tundra dwellers this is the result of centuries of adaptation to a harsh climate and a specific diet.

That is why Nenets who move to the cities of the Arctic often complain of deterioration in health if they do not eat traditional food for a long time – stroganina or antlers. It is difficult to replace it with a “European” menu: it simply does not compensate for all the body’s deficiencies in the conditions of the Far North.

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