Willows Noreen D
Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Can J Public Health. 2005 Jul-Aug;96 Suppl 3:S32-6, S36-41.
Aboriginal peoples are the original inhabitants of Canada. These many diverse peoples have distinct languages, cultures, religious beliefs and political systems. The current dietary practices of Aboriginal peoples pose significant health risks. Interventions to improve the nutritional status of Aboriginal peoples must reflect the realities of how people make food choices and therefore should be informed by an understanding of contemporary patterns of food procurement, preparation and distribution. Most of the literature documenting the health of Aboriginal peoples is primarily epidemiologic, and there is limited discussion of the determinants that contribute to health status. The majority of studies examining dietary intake in Aboriginal communities do not aim to study the determinants of food intake per se even though many describe differences in food intake across sex, age groups, seasons and sometimes communities, and may describe factors that could have an effect on food consumption (e.g., employment status, level of education, household size, presence of a hunter/trapper/fisher, occupation, main source of income). For these reasons, there are many gaps in knowledge pertaining to the determinants of healthy eating in Aboriginal peoples that must be filled. Given the diversity of Aboriginal peoples, research to address the gaps should take place at both the national level and at a more local level. Research would be important for each of Inuit, Métis and First Nations.
原住民是加拿大的原始居民。这些众多不同的民族有着独特的语言、文化、宗教信仰和政治制度。原住民目前的饮食习惯带来了重大的健康风险。改善原住民营养状况的干预措施必须反映人们如何做出食物选择的现实情况，因此应该基于对当代食物采购、制备和分配模式的理解。记录原住民健康状况的大多数文献主要是流行病学方面的，对影响健康状况的决定因素的讨论有限。大多数研究原住民社区饮食摄入情况的研究本身并非旨在研究食物摄入的决定因素，尽管许多研究描述了不同性别、年龄组、季节以及有时不同社区之间食物摄入量的差异，并且可能描述了可能影响食物消费的因素（例如就业状况、教育水平、家庭规模、是否有猎人/捕兽者/渔民、职业、主要收入来源）。由于这些原因，在原住民健康饮食决定因素方面存在许多知识空白有待填补。鉴于原住民的多样性，填补这些空白的研究应该在国家层面和更地方层面展开。对因纽特人、梅蒂斯人和第一民族中的每一个群体而言，研究都很重要。
