Inuit cuisine
[3] There has been a decline of hunting partially due to the fact that most young people lack the skills to survive off the land.
They are no longer skilled in hunting like their ancestors and are growing more accustomed to the Qallunaat ("white people") food that they receive from the south.
[10] Because the climate of the Arctic is ill-suited for agriculture and lacks forageable plant matter for much of the year, the traditional Inuit diet is lower in carbohydrates and higher in fat and animal protein compared to the global average.
Their urine volumes were also high, a result of additional urea which the body uses to purge waste products from gluconeogenesis.
[12][13][14][15] Not only have multiple researchers been unable to detect any evidence of ketosis resulting from the traditional Inuit diet, but the ratios of fatty-acid to glucose were observed to be well below the generally accepted level of ketogenesis.
[16][17] The Inuit practice of preserving a whole seal or bird carcass under an intact whole skin with a thick layer of blubber also permits some proteins to ferment into carbohydrates.
[16] Furthermore, the blubber, organs, muscle and skin of the marine mammals that Inuit eat have significant glycogen stores, which assist those animals when oxygen is depleted on prolonged dives.
[19] While postmortem glycogen levels are often depleted through the onset of rigor mortis, marine mammals have a much delayed onset of rigor mortis, even in warm conditions, presumably due to the high content of oxymyoglobin in the muscle that may permit aerobic metabolism to continue slowly for some time after the death of the animal.
[29] Furthermore, fish oil supplement studies have failed to support claims of preventing heart attacks or strokes.
[33] Searles defines Inuit food as mostly "eaten frozen, raw, or boiled, with very little mixture of ingredients and with very few spices added".
[34] When eating a meal, Inuit place large slabs of meat, blubber, and other parts of the animal on a piece of metal, plastic, or cardboard on the floor.
Borré explains the cutting of the seal in this way: "one of the hunters slits the abdomen laterally, exposing the internal organs.
[36] According to Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut, "food sharing was necessary for the physical and social welfare of the entire group.
Food in an Inuit household is not meant to be saved for the family who has hunted, fished, gathered, or purchased it, but instead for anyone who is in need of it.
"[35] Inuit are under the belief that if they do not follow the alliances that their ancestors have laid out, the animals will disappear because they have been offended and will cease to reproduce.
[35] All saltwater animals, including seals, are considered to be always thirsty and are therefore offered a drink of fresh water as they die.
[9] Borré tells of a time when she saw an Inuk woman fall ill who blamed her sickness on the lack of seal in her diet.
Borré experienced this many times among many different members of the group and they all attributed their sickness to the lack of Inuit food.
