Change In Aboriginal Diet Essay

Assess how influences on the dietary intake may affect the nutritional health of individuals (M2)

The book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan talks about the Western diet. The book includes an experiment in 1982, designed by a nutrition researcher Kerin O’Dea, to see if temporarily twisting the way Westerners eat might also change people’s health problems. And a group of Aborigines participated in the experiment. All of them were overweight and diabetic. They left the civilization and returned to the bush. Men and women only could hunted and gathered foods. They stayed on the coast and inland location for seven weeks, their diet mainly included seafood, turtle, yams, figs and bush honey. The result was positive. After seven weeks returning to the origin, all of these Aborigines had lost weight and their blood pressure dropped. In addition,

The Inuit people, with their diets mostly consisting of protein and fat, suffered little from major dietary health problems that we are so used to seeing today. This might come as a bit of a shock to most of us growing up constantly seeing the food pyramid and being taught that that the only way to stay healthy is to consume a balanced diet of grains, vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy.

At a young age, Canadian children are frequently taught that eating right and staying active are a few of the ways that we can keep ourselves at a healthy body weight. Author, Melanie A. Ferris of the journal “Preventing Obesity in Canada’s Aboriginal Children: Not Just a Matter of Eating Right and Getting Active” explains that many Indigenous citizens of Ontario are aware of how simple it appears to prevent obesity in the media, though, these often stressed tactics are not mindful of the living conditions present in the rural Indigenous communities. As the Indigenous determinants of health differ from the majority in Canada, preventing obesity in their young population can be a difficult task.

Furthermore, the unemployment rate in Sandy Lake is 90%, which makes it even more impossible for families to eat a healthy diet. Poverty has a direction connection to health issues because, in part, it determines what kinds of foods people have access to and what they can afford to purchase. Thus, “persons at lower incomes are subject to the stress of food insecurity from a compromised diet that results when food is no longer available” (Reading & Wein, 2009, p.17). The Sandy Lake community struggles to maintain its past while moving forward, adapting to modern Western lifestyles. With increasing hunting-angling costs and a reported diminished hunting/angling knowledge base, wild foods are no longer the primary food source for most families in the community (Robidoux, 2009). Residents of Sandy Lake resort to high fatty cheap food sold at the Northern store, as this is the only thing that is financially accessible to them. This is what is causing the detrimental impacts to the health of the residents of Sandy Lake. Many factors have lead to the current health situation at Sandy Lake. The Oji-Cree peoples has struggled to maintain its’ autonomy while practicing traditional food practices. The high rate of diabetes within the community is due to a longstanding history of complicated Settler/Indigenous relationships and this must be taken

M2 : Assess how influences on dietary intake may affect the nutritional health of individuals

Apart from the economic and institution driven implications of obesity on the Canadian federal system, the issue of obesity also targets the social circle of Canadian media, culture, values and global reputation. If the federal government does not take an active step in the stop against unhealthy eating, bad life style choices and obesity then the problem will continue to escalate. Public policy can be used to bring awareness to issues that effect and benefit many. There was an important study documented in the European journal of public health that suggests, “one in three obese children might not have been obese in the absence of advertising for unhealthy food on TV. Limiting the exposure of children to marketing of energy-dense food could be part of a broader effort to make children 's diets healthier”(Veerman 1). This shocking statistic is directly linked to the normalization of obesity and an unhealthy diet that the media has continued to promote.

The effects of the western diet are emphasized and seen through immigration. Many articles and studies have been done to show the effects of the westernized diet among immigrants. We often view immigrants as people coming to America seeking opportunity for themselves and their families to have better lives. While immigrants focus on providing for their family, one must wonder how often they think of the foods they and their families consume. In this section we will explore the effect of the western diet on different communities of immigrants. Batis, Bates, and Sanou, analyze the trends of obesity between Mexican immigrants and Americans, Latino & Asian Americans, and Canadian born vs. Canadian Immigrants.

2001) Recognised by the World Health Organisation, the dramatic worldwide increase in obesity has been named as ‘a global epidemic’. Although obesity occurs in all populations groups in Australia, Indigenous Australians and people from low socio-economic backgrounds are most prone to obesity. The issue of obesity and the increasing levels of

Data on obesity rates in Aboriginal people are mostly from self reported data and in many cases exclude populations living on reserve (Foulds, Bredin, & Warburton, 2011) and few are specific to provinces. Thus, this section will provide childhood obesity prevalence in Aboriginal populations from a number of relevant Canadian surveys including First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (RHS), the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS), and the Nunavut Inuit Child Health Survey

The prevalence of diabetes is increasing in Canada, and is growing health concern. This increase is especially apparent in Canadian Aboriginal population where the estimated prevalence of diabetes is three to five times higher than in the general Canadian population. Because of the risk of several health complications such as coronary heart diseases, neuropathy, eye damage, kidney failure, and peripheral arterial diseases, diabetes is a one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Developing health complications increases when diabetes is undiagnosed and represents unseen, but important burden with significant long-term impact on the people’s health status. First Nations individuals have more diabetes risk factors and suffer more diabetes-related health complications than non-Aboriginals. Therefore, accurate data on diabetes prevalence are essential for government, health care and research organizations.

Native Americans’ bodies could not handle the extra fat and sugar in their diet. This, coupled with a decrease in intense exercise, increased obesity and brought on the rise of diabetes. The sudden lack of exercise resulted in a significant weight increase in the Native American community. Indians were used to roaming the countryside. They had to follow the buffalo or move to warmer weather. Now, they were put into permanent homes and bought their food. This created an overweight, obese group of people. Studies estimated that the overall occurrence of obesity among Native Americans was 13.7 percent for men and 16.5 percent for women. These are higher than the United States’ rates of 9.1 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. It is reported that the United States spends $93 billion a year on preventable obesity- related illnesses and diseases.

Indigenous Australians have poorer health outcomes than Non-Indigenous Australians due to historical events, including Colonisation, that introduced infectious and unknown diseases, and created intergenerational health issues, and the Stolen Generation, that has contributed to psychosocial implications. The continuing inequities of social determinants, including but not limited to, poor education and low socio-economic status, have contributed to the poor health outcomes of Indigenous Australians. The health of Indigenous Australians has largely been affected by history through the inhumane treatment by Non-Indigenous Australians and English settlers. Sherwood comments on documents from the First Fleet illustrating the “good health” of the

Historically, Aboriginal people eat traditional foods found on their land, such as fish and plants. Since being displaced, a significant amount of traditional food consumed is contaminated due to “anthropogenic activities, [and] environmental activities (e.g. mercury and PCBs)” (Richmond and Ross 404). In addition, consumption of traditional

This article reveals how an aboriginal’s socio-economic status, physical environment and cultural beliefs, influences the composite process of deciding what dietary customs would promote holistic health. The article acknowledges that an aboriginal’s health just like any other Canadian, is vastly affected by what nutritional values they consume. However, certain factors act as food determinants for the aboriginals, most of these factors do not apply to Canadians. Based on reliable secondary sources, the author found that there were certain changes in the aboriginals’ physical environments, such as deforestation and the building of dams that exacerbated the health and wellbeing of aboriginals, by wiping out all their traditional plants and animals. As a result, there was a shift from a healthier way of feeding to the reliance on welfare food, consisting of processed food high in