Can you get your essential nutrients on Svalbard?

When I was younger I thought Svalbard was a magical place that only existed in the fictional books I loved to read. After a recent visit to the archipelago of Svalbard I learnt that even though it was indeed a real place, it was no less magical.

There are about 2500-3000 people living on the Arctic islands of Svalbard, within the Arctic Circle.^1,2 Currently, most food is imported into Svalbard.² What if, for some reason, this stopped? Is it possible to get one’s essential nutrients locally on the islands?

Environment of Svalbard

Situated between 74 to 81 degrees north,^2,3,4 the archipelago fo Svalbard lies within the Arctic Circle. The average annual temperature range in the town of Longyearbyen is between -25ºC in winter and 10ºC in summer, while in the Adventdalen area the coldest (February) and warmest (July) months have mean temperatures of −15.2 °C and 6.2 °C, respectively, and the mean annual air temperature is −5.8 °C.⁵ At this altitude, the earth experiences what is called “polar night” and the “midnight sun”. During the summer months, due to the tilt of the planet, around April 20th - August 23rd, the sun never sets giving months of “daytime”. During winter, around November 11th - January 30th, the sun never rises giving months of darkness. Due to the warm North Atlantic current however, the climate of Svalbard is not as harsh as other parts of the Arctic.^3,6

60% of Svalbard’s land area is covered with glaciers and the rest is “periglacial environment” and permafrost. ^4,5,7,8 Just over 30% of this non-glacial part of Svalbard is covered in low lying vegetation^3,7 with shallow roots.⁶ A combination of the low angle of sunlight, low average summer temperatures and all but a shallow surface layer of soil being permenantly frozen (permafrost) contributes to the environment of Svalbard being completely devoid of trees.⁶ Considered to have relatively more simple ecosystems and fewer species than non-Arctic environments, the genetic diversity of many species in the Arctic is still high. Living in these Arctic tundras of Svalbard are animals including polar bear, Arctic fox, Svalbard reindeer as well as birds and insects. Despite the cold, the seas around Svalbard are abundant with life as well, being home to whales, walrus, seals, fish and a plethorea of invertebrate such molluscs, crustaceans, sea sponges and cnidarians.⁴

People of Svalbard

It is widely said that the islands of Svalbard were discovered first in 1596 by the Dutch explorer, Willem Barentsz,^{9,10,11,12,13} and that the archipelago had no previous indigenous people.^2,12 Other hypotheses for the first to discover Svalbard include mesolithic hunter-gatherers, Norsemen, Pomors^10,11 and Portugese explorers who created the map, Cantino Planispher.¹⁴

Living in Svalbard requires adapting to its harsh environment and extreme conditions — a challenge that inhabitants of the archipelago have met throughout history, from the first wintering and establishing the whaling industry^13,15,16to the development of coal mining settlements and, more recently, thriving communities centered on research and tourism.² Both the early settlers and modern residents of Svalbard have relied on local foods, such as whale and reindeer, as part of their diet. However, the majority of food consumed today is imported due to the harsh environment and limited agricultural possibilities. Hypothetically, if food imports were to cease, the population would need to depend entirely on Arctic food sources for survival.

Populations that rely on Arctic food sources

Today, there are populations living in all the Arctic regions of Greenland, Alaska, Canada, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, including Svalbard. Like in Svalbard, many people in these places do not soley rely on Arctic foods. However, there are many groups of people that have lived solely off the Arctic environment in the past and some still exist today.

There have been mammoth remains found in the Siberian Arctic with injuries that indicate humans have been living in the arctic from as long as around 45,000 years ago.¹⁷ The North American Arctic is thought to be the last region of the Americas to be populated by humans around 6000 years ago.¹⁸

These populations and modern indigenous Eurasian and North American arctic populations can mostly sustain themselves off animal sources like deer, whale, seal, fish and birds. In summer, berries and lichens can supplement their diet.¹⁹ A study²⁰ found that Arctic canadian populations that consumed traditional diets had less nutrient deficiencies than when they consume a more “western diet”.

Getting your essential nutrients on Svalbard

Are the foods that other Arctic peoples survived/survive off available in Svalbard? And, if so, can one get all essential nutrients from them or other foods from the land and sea? If not, perhaps genetic ancestry makes a difference. For example, some arctic populations have shown genetic evidence of adaptation to arctic climate and diet,^21,22 perhaps making it easier for them to meet nutrient requirements than others.

To see if we can answer these questions we will use the Nutrient Journal Running Average nutrient intake reference (an average of many global nutrient recommendations) for a 31-50 year old female as a guide.

Reindeer

Reindeers are deer native to North America and northern Eurasia and are an important traditional food for arctic people.^23-31 The smallest species, Svalbard reindeer (R. t. platyrhynchus), is endemic to Svalbard. It is protected and as such there are only a certain amount of reindeer hunted per year.³²

180g

In 180g of raw reindeer meat there is 54% of the phosphorous recommended daily intake (RDI or equivalent), 20% of the magnesium RDI, 16% of the potassium RDI, 17% of the sodium RDI, 66% of the chromium RDI, 25% of the copper RDI, 51% of the iron RDI, 9% of the selenium RDI, 120% of the zinc RDI, 15% of the thiamin RDI, 124% of the riboflavin RDI, 96% of the niacin RDI, 46% of the pantothenic acid RDI, 48% of the pyridoxine RDI, 250% of the cobalamin RDI, 8% of the biotin RDI, 4% of the folate RDI, 10% of the vitamin A RDI, 6% of the vitamin E RDI, 3% of the linoleic acid RDI, 2% of the alpha-linolenic acid RDI, 3% of the calcium RDI, 102% of the protein RDI and 4% of the vitamin C RDI.^{23-25,27-31,33,34}

10g

In 10g of reindeer liver there is 4% of the protein RDI, 4% of the phosphorous RDI, 117% of the copper RDI, 23% of the iron RDI, 8% of the selenium RDI, 4% of the zinc RDI, 3% of the thiamin RDI, 19% of the riboflavin RDI, 11% of the niacin RDI, 13% of the pantothenic acid RDI, 10% of the pyridoxine RDI, 670% of the cobalamin RDI, 7% of the biotin RDI, 8% of the folate RDI, 3% of the vitamin C RDI, 171% of the vitamin A RDI, 3% of the vitamin D RDI, 6% of the vitamin E RDI and 0.4% of the linoleic acid RDI.^{24,27,28,30,31,34}

Whale

Like reindeer, Svalbard also protects whales from being over-hunted. Minke whales are eaten in Svalbard today, by both people and dogs. The beluga whale is a traditional food of arctic people and is used as an example of nutrients in whale.^23-28

90g

In 90g of raw beluga whale meat there is 60% of the protein RDI, 6% of the magnesium RDI, 31% of the phosphorous RDI, 7% of the potassium RDI, 6% of the sodium RDI, 10% of the copper RDI, 130% of the iron RDI, 53% of the selenium RDI, 31% of the zinc RDI, 1% of the thiamin RDI, 15% of the riboflavin RDI, 35% of the niacin RDI, 12% of the pantothenic acid RDI, 3% of the pyridoxine RDI, 97% of the cobalamine RDI, 7% of the choline RDI and 13% of the vitamin A RDI.³⁴

50g

Muktuk is a traditional arctic food of whale skin/epidermis and blubber.

In 50g of raw beluga whale muktuk there is at least 1% of the riboflavin RDI, 31% of the pyridoxine RDI, 20% of the vitamin A RDI, 18% of the vitamin D RDI and 5% of the vitamin E RDI and 31% of the vitamin C RDI.^24,26-28

20g

In 20g of beluga whale blubber there is 70% of the vitamin A RDI, 2% of the vitamin C RDI and 10% of the vitamin E RDI.^27,28

Seal

Seals are an arctic animal that has been used by people for food, as well as for their skin, for thousands of years. Seals hunted traditionally include ringed seal, bearded seal and spotted seal, but we will use the ringed seal as our Svalbard example.^23-28,35,36

50g

In 50g of raw ringed seal meat has 20% of the riboflavin RDI, 39% of the niacin RDI, 32% of the pyridoxine RDI and 3% of the vitamin C RDI.^23,24

20g

In 20g of raw ringed seal blubber there is 4% of the vitamin A RDI, 6% of the vitamin D RDI, 1% of the vitamin E RDI and 1% of the riboflavin RDI.^24,28

Birds and their eggs

The sea bird, Uria lomvia (thick-billed murre or Brünnich‘s guillemot) is one of many birds that have been historically hunted in the arctic.³⁷ Both the bird and their eggs could theoretically be eaten for essential nutrients in Svalbard.⁴

100g

Brünnich‘s guillemot eggs are quite large. A 100g egg provides 4.08g of fat which includes essential fatty acids.³⁸

Fish

At least 70 species of arctic fish species exist in the waters around Svalbard.⁴ Arctic char, Salvelinus alpinus, is one of these species. It is a staple in the traditional diets of people indigenous to the arctic such as the Inuit and Sami³⁹ and will be the fish we look at below.

100g

100g of raw arctic char has 47% of the protein RDI, 10% of the potassium RDI, 3% of the sodium RDI, 19% of the riboflavin RDI, 69% of the niacin RDI, 48% of the pyridoxine RDI, 3% of the folate RDI, 5% of the vitamin A RDI, 516% of the vitamin D RDI and 1% of the vitamin E RDI.^24,28,34

10g

The food we have looked at so far have all been animal sources. As discussed before, the arctic environment of Svalbard limits vegetation growth. There are a few plant foods, however, that are eaten by indigenous arctic populations and also present in Svalbard. One of these is mountain sorrel, Oxyria digyna.^3,6

Mountain sorrel has leaves that are thick, fleshy and taste sour due to oxalic acid.⁶Yupik, Chukchi, Inupiaq and Sami people all use mountain sorrel in their diets. For examples, the Sami use it for a dessert, Jåbmå, where the leaves are cooked as a stew and served with milk and sugar. Another traditional Sami food involves boiling the leaves down to make a pulp and heating with reindeer milk to make a porridge.

In 10g of raw mountain sorrel there is 3.6 mg of vitamin C (6% of the RDI).

Dandelion

Dandelions have been used by humans all over the world, for thousands of years, for food and medicine.⁴⁰ All parts of the plant - leaves, stem, flower and root - are edible.⁴¹ There have been three species of dandelion identified on Svalbard.^3,6

10g

10g of dandelion leaf contains 104% of the vitamin K RDI, 3% of the vitamin E RDI, 7% of the vitamin A RDI, 4% of the vitamin C RDI.^34,42

10g

10g of dandelion flower contains 1% of the vitamin C RDI.⁴²

10g

In 10g of dandelion stem there is also some vitamin C - roughly 2% of the RDI.⁴²

10g

10g of the root of the dandelion, according to our food database at the present, does not contain considerable essential nutrients, but it does contain other compounds with health benefits, such as inulin, sesquiterpene lactones and a glucoside of taraxic acid.^40,43

30g

Though rare, there are plants that grow berries in Svalbard and the cloudberry is one example. Other plants such as the bog bilberry, or Arctic bilberry, grow in Svalbard too, but no ripe fruit have been seen.^3,6,44

30g of cloudberry contains 60% of the vitamin C RDI and 15% of the vitamin E RDI. Wild fruits can often have more protein per gram than their farmed and store-bought equivalents. Even though one’s protein requirement would already be more than satisfied by eating animal products, it is interesting to note that in 30g of cloudberry there is 1% of protein RDI (RDI of 39.75g).^44,45

Longyearbyen, the largest inhabited area of Svalbard.

The northern lights over Longyearbyen.

Food Quantities, Nutrients Consumed and lack of data

The foods and quantities of food in this article are decided upon in order to meet the nutrient recommendations. They are based on the nutrients in the food that are recorded in literature that so far exist in our database.

For a number of reasons the nutrients consumed according to these amounts is only a very rough estimate.

There are many nutrients in the foods that are not recorded. The foods may also contain nutrients or anti-nutrients in quantities unknown, unpublished or that are incorrect.

We are only considering the nutrient amounts that are recorded to be in the food, not the actual nutrient amount that is bioavailable.

Some nutrient recommendation levels that haven’t been met, like molybdenum and biotin, are only needed in trace amounts and deficiency is thought to be rare. There is also not a lot of literature describing the amounts of many specific essential nutrients in these arctic foods... for now!

Special notes on acquiring nutrients in the arctic

In arctic environments some nutrients might be harder to aquire or too easily consumed in excess, especially without specific knowledge.

With the long polar nights, it is more important for vitamin D to be obtained through the diet. A study from Trinity College Dublin, suggests that it is possible to build up enough vitamin D from the sun alone in Ireland.⁴⁶ However when you only have, more or less, half the year with sun and are covered up in warm clothes, food becomes an essential source of vitamin D.^47,48

Organ meats are particularly reliable sources of vitamins A, vitamin D, iron, zinc, folate, selenium, and choline.⁴⁹ However, eating too much of these nutrient dense foods can easily lead to toxicity. This is where local knowledge passed down through generations becomes particularly valuable.

Food summary

• 180g Reindeer meat
• 10g Reindeer liver
• 90g Beluga whale meat
• 50g Beluga whale muktuk
• 20g Beluga whale blubber
• 50g Ringed seal meat
• 20g Ringed seal blubber
• 100g Arctic char
• 100g Brünnich‘s guillemot egg
• 10g Mountain sorrel
• 10g Dandelion leaves/greens
• 10g Dandelion flower
• 10g Dandelion stem
• 10g Dandelion root
• 30g Cloudberry

References