Food and Water Study being done in Listuguj

It is our lifestyle to consume what comes from the land. We fish, we hunt and we harvest. With the rise of industry, came the reality of exposure to harmful contaminants.

What could be in the local resources? This is what the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environmental Contaminant Study (FNFNES) is here to examine.

The FNFNES will be conducting a four mon th study here in Listuguj. This is just a small portion of the study, which spans coast to coast over the course of 10 years. The FNFNES has collected data from many First Nation Communities all across Canada.

The study is collecting traditional food and water to be prepared and sent for testing.  During the four months Stephanie Levesque, the Nutrition Research Coordinator from FNFNES, will be here alongside two Community Research Assistants, Stacy Martin and Claudette Methot. The data of the study is separated into these 5 components:

• Drinking Water Component
• Traditional Food Sampling and Collection
• Surface Water Collection
• Hair Sampling for Mercury
• Traditional Food Frequency
Questionnaire

100 Households will be selected at random for the Food Frequency Questionnaire. The first part asks how much of the traditional food the participant has consumed, and how often. The second part asks about the water sources used in the household for cooking.

Nujignua’tegeg’s Tyler Morrison sat down with Stephanie Levesque and Denny Isaac, the Director of Research at the GMRC, in Listuguj to talk about the FNFNES study, as well as information from the studies conducted by the GMRC.  “I find it very pleasant to know as a Dietician that some people are hesitant to eat traditional food, but once it’s been tested it’s proven to be healthier than typically what we can buy in the grocery store” said Levesque.