Traditional Food...is it still good for us?
Have you read the news? Some of the animals eaten by Northern Aboriginal peoples are known to have contaminants in them, yet these traditional foods are also a source of excellent nutrition not easily replaced by market foods.
Harvesting and using animals is part of a respected way of life -- for some, give meaning to life. Is it reasonable to fear traditional food because of contaminants? It's hard to know what to think.
Many things we do in life come with benefits and risks. Playing sports, for example. The benefits are keeping in shape and being with friends. The risk is injury.
Harvesting and using food from land and sea can also be looked at this way. The benefits include tasty, nutritious food, closeness to the land and closeness to one's community. And, though it is unpleasant to think about, there are risks as well. The ice may be too thin, or the sea too choppy.
Recently, people have learned about another risk, the presence of unwanted things in their traditional food -- contaminants.
| Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples: Nutrition, Botany and Use by Harriet V. Kuhnlein and Nancy J. Turner, 1991 Available online A book on plant foods used by Canadian Indigenous Peoples, this publication reports on the nutritional, botanical and ethnological data of more than one thousand species of edible plants found in Canada. In addition to providing nutrient information, it describes regions where these food plants are available and presents patterns of use of particular species by Canadian Indigenous Peoples. Several cross-referencing tables containing common English plant names, scientific notation and composite information about each species are accompanied by chapters giving an overview of the known ethnic uses of the most important and universally used species. Biologists, ethnologists, Indigenous Peoples, nutritionists, wildlife enthusiasts and health care professionals will all find this information valuable. This valuable 600 page resource has been out of print for several years, and is now scanned and available for download by chapter on the website of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. |