The Influence of the “Traditional” and “Westernized” Distribution of Products in the “Arctic Cuisine” on the Nutrition Status of the Indigenous Northerners

Abstract

We have evaluated the influence of the “traditional” and “Westernized” types of distribution of products in the “Arctic cuisine” among the Nenets women by examining the serum 25(OH)D concentration. The levels of vitamin D are high in the bodies of older women who have steady access to products of reindeer breeding owing to a specific type of food distribution within the community frequently known as gift economy. When a person is excluded from the traditional system of food distribution, the vitamin D status becomes lower. We argue that the egalitarian (“horizontal”) type of food distribution has functioned as an adaptive mechanism for sustaining nutrition and health among the indigenous people of the North.