Diet

Traditional diets

The traditional diets of populations around the world vary greatly. The diet of Inuit hunters in the Arctic is composed almost entirely of meat and fish, but most hunter-gatherers in other parts of the world obtain more food from gathering plants than from hunting animals. Pastoralists keep different animals according to where they live, varying from reindeer in the north to camels in hot arid areas, but they always have a diet rich in animal foods such as milk, meat, and blood. Peasant agriculturalists grow different staple crops according to local conditions, but usually have diets composed largely of plant foods with only small amounts of animal foods.

The traditional diets of populations have been followed for hundreds or thousands of years and, except in times of severe food shortage, are certainly compatible with the maintenance of health sufficient for the survival and growth of infants and children, and for successful reproduction. However, traditional diets are sometimes far from optimal and may be accompanied by serious nutritional disorders, from which the people may have suffered for many generations. For example, approximately one-fifth of the population of the world is at significant risk for developing iodine deficiency disorders; pellagra was formerly common in populations subsisting largely on maize due to deficiency in the vitamin niacin and the amino acid tryptophan; and high blood pressure and stroke are common in populations with a diet high in salt.