Dietary assessment of indigenous Canadian Arctic women with a focus on pregnancy and lactation

Abstract

Objectives. To assess the diet of Indigenous women, including pregnant and lactating women, in the Canadian Arctic in terms of dietary adequacy, and to assess the contribution of traditional food to the diet. Study design. Population-based cross-sectional design, using 4-hour dietary recalls. Methods. Twenty-four hour quantitative dietary recalls were collected in 47 communities in 5 surveys between 1987 and 1999, including non-pregnant and non-lactating women (n=1300), pregnant women (n=74) and lactating women (n=117). Unique methods of assessment were undertaken using Software for Intake Distribution Assessment (SIDE) partitioned intra- and interindividual variance that allowed the estimation of the distribution of usual daily nutrient intakes for comparison to North American dietary reference intakes. Results. Contributions of traditional Arctic food to energy intakes varied and the prevalence of inadequacies were generally high for magnesium, vitamin A, folate, vitamin C and vitamin E. Supplement use was infrequent. Many women met their needs for iron, and some exceeded the recommended upper limit for iron with food alone. Average intakes of manganese and vitamin D met recommended levels, but calcium did not. Conclusions. These results are the only data to date reporting an assessment of the dietary intakes of pregnant and lactating Canadian Arctic Indigenous women. Special attention is required for inadequacies of magnesium, zinc, calcium, folate, and vitamins E, A and C; and for use of supplements during pregnancy. Most pregnant and lactating women met iron needs without supplements.