Natural and Economic Events Influencing Arctic Food Consumption Data

Abstract

Short-term household per capita food consumption studies for representative occupational groups in northernmost Norway, by the Norwegian National Association for Diet and Health, tend to understate consumptions of selected foods when adjusted for comparison with the year’s supply available as determined by a food-balance method. The understatements, it is proffered, are due to the peculiarly selected survey periods not being sufficiently representative of the year’s cycles of natural and economic events which are of special influence on physical activity in this arctic area and, consequently, on caloric consumptions, A prehousehold study, eg, relating fluctuations at wholesale to such cycles to determine significantly influential events, would aid in the empirical selection of one or more sample periods for better representation of long-term diets.