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What’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Nutritionist partners with health promotion workers to launch monthly health themes

Leanne Webb, nutritionist for the Baffin region.

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(PHOTO BY RON ELLIOTT)

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KIRSTEN MURPHY

Nutritionist Leanne Webb is discovering what Nunavummiut have known for centuries: traditional country foods are nutritional building blocks for strong bones and strong healthy muscles.

The Pangnirtung-based nutritionist works closely with community health representatives (CHRs). Together, the health specialists encourage expectant mothers, teachers and students to make healthy choices when planning meals and snacks.

Webb started work in May — filling a 2.5-year void after Brenda McIntyre vacated the position in 1999. McIntyre remains with the health department and helped release Nunavut Food Guide in March.

Starting in December, Webb and her colleagues will launch a health campaign targeting different age groups. The themes include nutrition, healthy minds and dental health.

Webb graduated with a science degree in applied human nutrition from St. Vincent University in Halifax two years ago.

Nutrition in the North requires combining science and traditional knowledge, she said.

"There is already a lot of good work being done in the communities. I see my role as supporting communities with their current nutrition programs and helping to develop new ones," Webb said.

"It’s a strength that a good part of people’s diet is already coming from country food."

Using the Nunavut Food Guide, Webb emphasizes the connection between plates of pasta and the energy required to play hockey or go hunting. Most people know eating a balanced diet of protein, vegetables and carbohydrates is important. What most people don’t know — and what Webb hopes to promote — is the correlation between healthy bodies and healthy minds.

Inuit eating patterns have changed dramatically and rapidly over the past 50 years, Webb said.

With the arrival of qallunaat came pre-packaged foods rich in fat, sugar, salt and starch.

And while elders know the importance of berries, bannock and beluga, younger generations are not always as informed.

"I’ve heard parents saying they’re concerned because kids are eating more store foods and not eating as many country foods and we know country foods are nutritious and are a very important part of Inuit culture," Webb said.

Webb hopes her cooking classes and menu planning sessions will help reduce the Baffin region’s rates of heart disease and diabetes.

The trick is knowing people’s eating habits — a trick that takes time, she said.

Ideally, the health department wants full-time nutritionists in each of the territory’s three regions. For now, the Baffin is the only area where the position has been filled.

Travel is a big part of Webb’s job. Her goal is to visit one of the Baffin’s 12 communities each month.

Since finding the job posting on the Internet and packing her bags, Webb has not looked back.

"I knew it would be a good experience working in the North. My interest has always been in communities," she said.

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