# Inuit Study Adds Twist to Omega-3 Fatty Acids’ Health Story **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 23, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259 "2015-09-23T02:09:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/1 "2015-09-23T02:09:28Z")
> **[Inuit Study Adds Twist to Omega-3 Fatty Acids’ Health Story (Published 2015)](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/science/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story.html?_r=0)** > > A new study found that ancestors of the Inuit evolved unique genetic adaptations for eating a diet rich in fish and whale meat. > [@](#): > > For the most part, the Inuit ate what they could hunt, and they mostly hunted at sea, catching whales, seals and fish. Western scientists have long been fascinated by their distinctly un-Western diet. Despite eating so much fatty meat and fish, the Inuit didn’t have a lot of heart attacks. > > In the 1970s, Danish researchers studying Inuit metabolism proposed that omega-3 fatty acids found in fish were protective. Those conclusions eventually led to the recommendation that Westerners eat more fish to help prevent heart disease and sent tens of millions scrambling for fish oil pills. > … > A study published last week in the journal Science reported that the ancestors of the Inuit evolved unique genetic adaptations for metabolizing omega-3s and other fatty acids. Those gene variants had drastic effects on Inuit bodies, reducing their heights and weights. > > Rasmus Nielsen, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author of the new study, said that the discovery raised questions about whether omega-3 fats really were protective for everyone, despite decades of health advice. “The same diet may have different effects on different people,” he said. I don’t take fish oil pills, but I do try to eat cold water oily fish like sardines at least a couple of times a month. So now I’m wondering if they’ve been doing me more harm than good. This seems to bring a lot of dietary advice into question. For example, does the Mediterranean diet only work for people descended from people from that area? Is olive oil truly healthy for everyone? Is red meat really bad for everyone? Do we all need to subscribe to [ancestry.com](http://ancestry.com) to determine our healthiest diet? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/2 "2015-09-23T07:37:30Z")
Ever wonder how people survived without all the _Latest Scientific Findings_? The one about red meat is great - and also alcohol. Or is it just red wine, and all other alcoholic drinks are still bad? ‘Eat Right, Stay Fit’ - and die anyway. An ancient maxim. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/3 "2015-09-23T10:43:43Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Do we all need to subscribe to [ancestry.com](http://ancestry.com) to determine our healthiest diet? Pretty much, I reckon, **davidm**. I think there are major genetic differences in gastrointestinal responses - it would have been vital in terms of adapting to local nutritional opportunities. Without being a food nazi, I choose to eat a more genetically appropriate diet than most of my entire family, and I am by far one of the healthiest. I suffer absolutely none of the ‘expected’ maladies that have run through the past four generations like whack-a-mole, and interestingly, I don’t even have any of the ‘normal’ oldbastard illnesses my friends do. Even as a smoker I am rarely, rarely ill, recover fairly rapidly and look almost a decade younger than I am. Feast and famine’ eating absolutely suits me - I feel better, I’m more resilient, and I sleep better. So I’ve done that for decades. Even at the barest bones of all of it, I eat seasonally. So yeah - _I am my family tree, therefore I eat my family tree_. Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/4 "2015-09-23T14:08:47Z")
Personally I find this very interesting. The NYT summary of it however is a bit off. The evidence for diets relatively high in fatty fish and omega 3s containing foods being beneficial in general is much deeper than “Inuits gets less heart disease and Inuits eat lots of fatty fish.” The reality is that we humans are a varied group and have been far from static over the past ten thousand or so years. The Inuit do well _adapted to_ a very specific relatively extreme sort of diet. The same genes have also led them to be shorter than average as a population group. The same gene is in a European population associated with low fasting serum levels of insulin, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol so it may be that for the Inuit it is not the extreme diet (very low carb, high fat) that is so cardioprotective but the specific population adaptations to it that is. Unfortunately the low fasting insulin bit does not seem to help the Inuit as other genes that resulted from this extremely hypoplycemic diet place them at higher risk of insulin resistance. Simple this stuff is not going to be! Hunter-gatherers were and are a diverse lot adapted to a variety of environments and most of us are of populations that have adapted since to different lifestyles. And then we mix those genes up! For general populations recommendations must be made that have the best current evidence of applying to most. And yes at some point there may be precision nutritional advice, identifying who with elevated cholesterol will have their heart risks lowered with a low cholesterol diet (only a small subset, hence the removal of high cholesterol foods from the list of “nutrients of concern” for the general population) and likely precision exercise advice, identifying who will respond better to what sort of exercise plan. Medicines too may be inspired by findings related to these specific genes and in the future prescribed according to gene screening for individual variations. For now though recommendations are mostly based on what works best for most and individual trial and error. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/5 "2015-09-23T16:53:59Z")
So in conclusion, we should eat Inuits. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/6 "2015-09-23T19:00:34Z")
That brings a whole new meaning to Eskimo Pie… ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/7 "2015-09-23T19:38:23Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > Without being a food nazi, I choose to eat a more genetically appropriate diet than most of my entire family, and I am by far one of the healthiest. I suffer absolutely none of the ‘expected’ maladies that have run through the past four generations like whack-a-mole, and interestingly, I don’t even have any of the ‘normal’ oldbastard illnesses my friends do. Out of curiosity, what’s your broad heritage, and what do you eat? Genetic testing proves I’m 99.7% Northern European. Mass quantities of dairy products tend to make me put on weight, alas. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/8 "2015-09-24T05:33:11Z")
Read the title as tax software Intuit, and thought yeah, the CEO probably has a fat head. > [@usedtobe](#): > > Ever wonder how people survived without all the _Latest Scientific Findings_? > > The one about red meat is great - and also alcohol. Or is it just red wine, and all other alcoholic drinks are still bad? > > ‘Eat Right, Stay Fit’ - and die anyway. An ancient maxim. Some foods go through a progression: [ol] [li]Eggs are good.[/li][li]Eggs are really good and you should eat them every day.[/li][li]Eggs are REALLY good and you should eat several of them raw in a glass before working out[/li][li]Eggs are full of cholesterol and bad for you.[/li][li]Actually it’s just the yolk, the whites are good.[/li][li]Wait, it’s the _good_ kind of cholesterol, so eat those yolks.[/li][li]???[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/9 "2015-09-24T13:18:26Z")
I think the latest thinking on eggs is that there’s scant evidence that dietary cholesterol is strongly linked to blood levels of cholesterol, that dietary fats may have a stronger influence, and that the fats in eggs are largely healthy fats. Of course it’s hard to separate facts from egg industry propaganda and this Inuit study seems to bring into question the whole idea of healthy versus unhealthy fats. ---
**Author:** ![Gothic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gothic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gothic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/10 "2015-09-24T13:50:34Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > Even as a smoker I am rarely, rarely ill, recover fairly rapidly and look almost a decade younger than I am. . Have a cigar, best thing for you. I always considered the movie Sleeper to be a good balance against the latest healthy food claims. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/11 "2015-09-24T14:01:38Z")
High cholesterol foods like eggs: known for decades that some fraction of people are hyper-responders to dietary cholesterol and some larger fraction respond very little at all. How to play that fact is the issue and the consensus _was_ that erring on advising avoidance was better since high cholesterol foods usually also travelled in bad company but consensus _now_ is that advising all to limit is a few steps too far. Also factoring in some additional research that parses out that the LDL subgroups that eggs do raise may not be as bad as other LDL subgroups in terms of atherogenic impact. No, this study does not bring into question the whole idea of healthy versus unhealthy fats in real foods as the case for that scarcely rests on the low rate of heart disease in the Inuit population. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/12 "2015-09-24T17:49:04Z")
The arguments I’m aware of suggest that you should keep a balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fats. And that omega-3s are good for helping your brain heal–which is why I take them. I was unaware of this Inuit thing. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/13 "2015-09-25T03:18:49Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Out of curiosity, what’s your broad heritage, and what do you eat? > > Genetic testing proves I’m 99.7% Northern European. Mass quantities of dairy products tend to make me put on weight, alas. Aboriginal Australian, **Sattua** , so I avoid refined sugars, alcohol, white flour, white rice, milk, and white potato for example. I eat fresh, seasonal, local foods, kanga in preference to beef, fish in preference to chicken; and only when I’m hungry, rather than when I ‘should’. So sometimes I might go a day or so without eating, sometimes I might spend _the day_ eating :D. Because I only eat when I’m hungry (and this includes small ‘hungers’ that a handful of macadamias will kill) it works out that I only have two meals a day - \*which \*two is random in itself. I’m not a purist - it just all seems to work out and fit the way it does. I only drink black coffee and water, for instance; not because I necessarily set out for it to be that way, but when you don’t do juice, soft drinks, cordial, or alcohol that’s just the way it turns out…! > [@Gothic](#): > > Have a cigar, best thing for you. I always considered the movie Sleeper to be a good balance against the latest healthy food claims. My understanding, **Gothic** is that a cigar is best enjoyed with a relaxing cognac; rollies I can suck down with caffeine and fury! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/14 "2015-09-25T04:09:03Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The arguments I’m aware of suggest that you should keep a balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fats. And that omega-3s are good for helping your brain heal–which is why I take them. > > I was unaware of this Inuit thing. The connection isn’t particularly Inuitive. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/15 "2015-09-25T04:25:43Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > ‘Eat Right, Stay Fit’ - and die anyway. An ancient maxim. Eat nothing but healthy foods. You still won’t live forever - - it’ll just _feel_ like it. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/16 "2015-09-25T04:40:56Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > Aboriginal Australian, **Sattua** , so I avoid refined sugars, alcohol, white flour, white rice, milk, and white potato for example. I eat fresh, seasonal, local foods Ah, me. Sounds like perhaps your diet would benefit us all. Whereas my ancestral diet of beer, sausage, cheese, and white bread … well. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/17 "2015-09-25T05:35:05Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The connection isn’t particularly Inuitive. 😛 I really set that one on a T, didn’t I? ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inuit-study-adds-twist-to-omega-3-fatty-acids-health-story/732259/18 "2015-09-25T13:53:30Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > So yeah - _I am my family tree, therefore I eat my family tree_. Or something like that. I’ve wondered if there’s something to this. Half of my family is north German, probably from even further north if we go back to times before fairly “set” country boundaries. We are the people of dairy. My great-great grandparents and great-grandparents lived into their 90s, fully _compos mentes_, in an era before widely available year-round fresh salads, daily-changing health advice, breast cancer screenings, prostate cancer screenings, skin cancer screenings, cholesterol screenings, and so on. My mother swears she didn’t have a non-creamed vegetable until she was 19 years old and had moved out. The grandparents who were given “modern” advice? Well, one died in his late 60s. The other said the hell with it after her spouse’s death, went back to dairy and meat, and lived to be 93. I know; anecdotes =/= data, etc. YMMV. But hey, mom is 73 and totally healthy and looks like she’s 10 years younger than she is. She eats a reasonable diet (eat some veg and fruit daily) with real dairy and meat, so I’m going to do the same. (For the record, I’m 45 and am mistaken for ten years younger.)