Macronutrient, Mineral and Fatty Acid Composition of Canadian Arctic Traditional Food

Traditional food resources of indigenous peoples provide a wealth of information on use of unique food species, and their harvest and preparation. Studying the nutrient contents of these food items presents several challenges; for example, adequate sampling to define variability, and conducting multiple nutrient analyses in limited sample portions. In this report, 236 independent samples of Canadian Arctic food species tissues are analyzed for macronutrients (protein, fat, moisture, ash, calculated energy), minerals (Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, P, Mg, Na, Mn, K, Se) and fatty acids (SFA, MUFA, n-3 PUFA and n-6 PUFA). Many new values are reported for the first time (particularly for Se, K, and PUFA), and other values are compared to earlier reports on similar tissues from our laboratory. Samples were selected as food items reported being frequently used in recent randomly collected food intake survey data over a broad geographical range of Yukon First Nations and Inuit communities.