Research

Research Data

Just How Much Food Does a Family of Five (with 3 teenagers!) eat in one year?
During our year of eating local we consumed:

Nutrients In Traditional Animal Foods (meat, fish, fowl) of Indigenous Peoples of Northern North America
traditionalanimalfoods.org/

This website describes and references the published literature on the many nutrients in traditional animal foods known and used by Indigenous Peoples of northern North America. The publication focuses on Canada, Alaska, Greenland and the northern United States of America, but many of the animal species presented here also occur in the northern latitudes of Europe and Asia.

• Mercury per gram of fresh fish (from lowest to highest):
  • Chum Salmon: 0.04 ug/g
  • Grayling: 0.06 ug/g
  • Burbot liver: 0.124 ug/g
  • Pike: 0.17 ug/g
  • Burbot : 0.62 ug/g
  (Based on a sample size of 14 burbot, 11 pike and 12 chum salmon from Old Crow and grayling from other Yukon locations.)
  
  This translates to a tolerable daily limit in grams of fish for an adult Canadian woman of average size:
  • Burbot : 45 g (1.5 oz)
  • Pike: 164 g
  • Burbot liver: 225 g
  • Grayling: 466 g
  • Chum Salmon: 700 g
  Based on one 4 pound, 11 year old burbot from the Yukon River at Dawson City:
  • Burbot muscle: 0.23 ug/g mercury
  • Burbot liver: 0.04 ug/g merucry
  Based on this one sample, the mercury levels from the Old Crow burbot are 2.5 times higher than the levels in the one fish tested from the Yukon River. Although only one sample, it suggests that the mercury levels in the Yukon River near Dawson may be less than the levels around Old Crow.
  For PCB’s and DDT, the amount found in 10 grams of burbot liver from the Old Crow study was quite low, one tenth of the tolerable daily intake for PCB’s and one twentieth for DDT.
  Note:
  • Mercury levels differ from one water system to another
  • Larger (older) fish have lower levels of contaminants than smaller (younger) fish
  • Predatory fish (lake trout, burbot) have higher levels of contaminants than non-predatory fish (whitefish, grayling, salmon)
    
    

Suzanne Checked her Blood Tests Every 3 Months during the year of eating local. Here is a summary of the Results:

May – before year of eating 100% local started:

• CBC (red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets): normal
• Ferritin (Iron stores): normal
• Blood sugar (including HGA1C that reflects blood sugar over previous 3 months): normal
• Salts (sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium): normal
• Kidney function: normal
• Liver function: normal
• Albumin (reflection of protein stores): normal
• Cholesterol and triglyceride: normal
• Thyroid: normal
• Vitamin D: normal
• Vitamin B12 (active): normal
• Vitamin C: not able test
• Iodine: not able to test

November:

• CBC (red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets): normal
• Ferritin (Iron stores): normal
• Blood sugar (including HGA1C that reflects blood sugar over previous 3 months): normal
• Salts (sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium): normal
• Kidney function: normal
• Liver function: normal
• Albumin (reflection of protein stores): normal
• Cholesterol and triglyceride: normal
• Thyroid: normal
• Vitamin D: low (Note: This result did not surprise me, as we make Vitamin D from our exposure to sunlight and the daylight hours in winter in the Yukon are short. Normally I would take Vitamin D to combat this, but I did not want to take any vitamin supplements during the year to see if eating 100% local would provide me with everything I needed.)
• Vitamin B12 (active): high
• Vitamin C: not able test
• Iodine: not able to test

February:

• CBC (red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets): normal
• Ferritin (Iron stores): normal
• Blood sugar (including HGA1C that reflects blood sugar over previous 3 months): normal
• Salts (sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium): normal
• Kidney function: normal
• Liver function: normal
• Albumin (reflection of protein stores): normal
• Cholesterol and triglyceride: normal
• Thyroid: normal
• Vitamin D: normal – returned to normal after eating burbot liver during the winter, high in Vitamin D
• Vitamin B12 (active): high
• Vitamin C: not able test
• Iodine: not able to test

May:

• CBC (red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets): normal
• Ferritin (Iron stores): normal
• Blood sugar (including HGA1C that reflects blood sugar over previous 3 months): normal
• Salts (sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium): normal
• Kidney function: normal
• Liver function: normal
• Albumin (reflection of protein stores): normal
• Cholesterol and triglyceride: normal
• Thyroid: normal
• Vitamin D: normal
• Vitamin B12 (active): normal
• Vitamin C: not able test
• Iodine: not able to test

July – At end year of eating 100% local:

• CBC (red blood cells, white blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets): normal
• Ferritin (Iron stores): normal
• Blood sugar (including HGA1C that reflects blood sugar over previous 3 months): normal
• Salts (sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium): normal
• Kidney function: normal
• Liver function: normal
• Albumin (reflection of protein stores): normal
• Cholesterol and triglyceride: normal
• Thyroid: normal
• Vitamin D: normal
• Vitamin B12 (active): normal
• Folate (RBC folate): normal
• Vitamin C: low (Note: This result surprised me as berries (especially haskaps), rosehips and spruce tips are all high in Vitamin C. I was not able to test my Vitamin C level prior to the year starting, so not sure if it started out normal, but I suspect it did.)
• Iodine: low (Note: This result did not surprise me since iodine is added to table salt, so present in most processed foods. Iodine was added to table salt to prevent goitre (enlarged thyroid gland). I was not able to test prior to the year starting, so not entirely sure if started out normal, but I suspect it did. Did not affect thyroid test which remain normal.)