Preliminary assessment of nutrients in daily diets of a sample of Belcher Island Inuit adults.

In order to describe daily food patterns and nutrient intakes of adults in the Inuit community of Sanikiluaq, 48 adults (young and older men and women, 12 per group, randomly selected from all individuals within their age and sex group) provided two 24-hour recalls of food consumption, once each in two seasons (February/March, October/November). The most frequent Inuit foods were reindeer, seal, and arctic char, while the most frequent market foods were tea, sugar, and bannock. On average 799 grams of Inuit food were consumed per day, providing 47% of daily energy and 65-92% of daily protein, iron, zinc, phosphorus, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. Inuit foods are primary sources of many nutrients for the Belcher Island Inuit.