On 2017-01-11 10:53 AM, Bruce wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 10:49:51 -0500, Dave Smith
> > wrote:
>
>> On 2017-01-11 10:25 AM, Bruce wrote:
>>> On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 09:34:02 -0500, Dave Smith
>>> > wrote:
>>
>>>>> The Inuit may do other things that make them live long (do they live
>>>>> long?) Maybe it's not so much the sweet potato that helped the
>>>>> Okinokonaki as the fact that the sweet potato replaced a lot of grains
>>>>> such as rice.
>>>>
>>>> The Inuit do not live longer than the rest of us. Their life expectancy
>>>> is about 10 years shorter than the average Canadian and that is a big
>>>> improvement because back in the 1940s it was 29 years.
>>>
>>> So seal blubber isn't a superfood.
>>>
>> I can't say that it ever appealed to me. I guess we can follow
>> Lucretia's advice for pork belly and cook it to render out *all* the fat.
>>
>> Fat was always an important part of the diet of the native people of the
>> north. A few years ago I read a book that was the translated memoirs of
>> an Innu hunter, and was sort of grossed out by his telling of taking a
>> can of bear fat and eating it straight. Apparently their bodies have
>> adapted to a diet that it high in fat and low in carbohydrates. There
>> are some special challenges to natives because the switch to high carb
>> and high salt and sugar and alcohol has led to high rates of type II
>> diabetes.
>
> But they're not getting very old on their fat diets either.
>

It is curious but despite the conversion to a more European diet high in
carbs and becoming prone to diseases related to it, they are living
almost three times as long as they did 80 years ago.