Originally Posted by
terrymorse
Arctic populations evolved to survive on a high fat marine animal diet. They had mutations in a couple of genes, and maybe more. They still got heart disease, but they often died long before the heart disease could kill them. They also had low bone density from calcium deficiency, and they suffered from bone fractures. I wouldn't say they were actually thriving. They were surviving.
Once they changed to eating a Western diet, their cardiovascular disease rose dramatically.
I remember reading a book by an ethnologue who lived for years with them before they had to change their way of life starting in the 1950's I think, and he described a perfectly healthy population. As an anecdote, most of them who had not been mixed with European visitors had perfectly black hair well into their 60's...
That said many kids didn't survive, so "natural" selection was clearly at work in these conditions.
From what I understand (again, I'm vegetarian mostly!), eating fresh, raw meat, liver in particular, should get you anything your body needs, all the elements are present in the body of these animals. I'm not saying this is a healthy diet for most people (and as discussed before, probably too much proteins, that need to be eliminated) Inuits also ate eggs, fish,
aged/rotten meat that they placed under large rocks so that polar bears and arctic foxes could not get it, and "fermentation" by bacteria could produce different vitamins (B, etc)... and lots of fat that arctic animals have in thick layers under the skin (seals, whales, etc), which was their main energy source!
The main issues after they became resident and abandoned their traditional way of life are mostly alcoholism, mental issues, and ... as you mention, bad diet!
Very few of them keep hunting and moving around (and of course with rifles, motorboats, skidoos, not bone harpoons, dog sleds, and leather kayaks, if any left, these are for the tourists)