title: "Fishing" for the origins of the "Eskimos and heart disease" story: facts or wishful thinking?
abstract: During the 1970s, 2 Danish investigators, Bang and Dyerberg, on being informed that the Greenland Eskimos had a low prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) set out to study the diet of this population. Bang and Dyerberg described the "Eskimo diet" as consisting of large amounts of seal and whale blubber (ie, fats of animal origin) and suggested that this diet was a key factor in the alleged low incidence of CAD. This was the beginning of a proliferation of studies that focused on the cardioprotective effects of the "Eskimo diet." In view of data, which accumulated on this topic during the past 40 years, we conducted a review of published literature to examine whether mortality and morbidity due to CAD are indeed lower in Eskimo/Inuit populations compared with their Caucasian counterparts. Most studies found that the Greenland Eskimos and the Canadian and Alaskan Inuit have CAD as often as the non-Eskimo populations. Notably, Bang and Dyerberg's studies from the 1970s did not investigate the prevalence of CAD in this population; however, their reports are still routinely cited as evidence for the cardioprotective effect of the "Eskimo diet." We discuss the possible motives leading to the misinterpretation of these seminal studies.
authors: Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: gfodor@ottawaheart.ca.
authors: J George
authors: JG
authors: Fodor
authors: Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Eftyhia
authors: E
authors: Helis
authors: Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors: Narges
authors: N
authors: Yazdekhasti
authors: Department of Physiological and Clinical Nutrition, Institute of Nutrition, Faculty of Nursing and Health Professional Studies and National Reference Center for Familial Hyperlipoproteinemias, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors: Branislav
authors: B
authors: Vohnout
mesh_terms: D000413:Alaska; D000818:Animals; D002170:Canada; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000208:ethnology*; D004032:Diet; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006116:Greenland; D006801:Humans; D004930:Inuit; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000208:ethnology; D015995:Prevalence; D017747:Seafood
chemical_list: D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D005395:Fish Oils