But a recent study suggests that the Inuit may also have some genetic adaptations that allow them to survive in harsh environments on high-fat foods and stay fit.
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“Our study is perhaps the most extreme example to date of a genetic adaptation to a specific diet”, said computational biology professor Rasmus Nielsen of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Copenhagen.
The researchers used genotyping profiles which were generated with the Illumina MetaboChip array – a chip that has been specifically designed to assess variants implicated in cardiac and/or metabolism-related traits in past GWAS – to search for alleles found at different frequencies in the Inuit population in comparison to other populations. “We saw that the Inuit have such a high diet of omega-3s, so they produce much less of it themselves”, Nielsen says. Now the subject continues to be, can they can stay in a high-fat diet but not improve illnesses?
His team followed a total of 191 Inuit from Greenland, 44 Ethnic Chinese and 60 Europeans.
Almost all of the Inuit in Nielsen’s study had variances in these genes that researchers think slow down the body’s natural production of omega-3 and omega-6 fats. “Height is controlled by many genes, but this mutation has one of the strongest effects on height ever found by geneticists”. “A diet that is healthy for the Inuit may not necessarily be good for the rest of us”. They lower “bad” LDL cholesterol and fasting insulin levels, presumably protecting against cardiovascular disease and diabetes. According to Phys.org, fatty acids having an effect on growth hormones could be the reason behind this. It is also said the gene variants provide drastic effects on their bodies and hence their height and weight are reduced too.
Researchers previously believed that the Arctic animals’ meat’s and blubber’s omega-3 fatty acids protected their consumers.
The study helps explain genetic diversity and how it impacts a person’s health through their diet, which could pave the way from personalizing diets based on people’s genetics. Desaturase enzymes convert dietary fatty acids into fatty acids stored and metabolized by the body.
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Just 15 percent of Chinese and 3 percent of Europeans had those gene biomarkers. Many of these variations occurred in a cluster of genes responsible for the construction of enzymes called fatty acid desaturases (FADS). As a result, Inuit people have some of the lowest rates of heart disease on the planet.
