Indigenous Australian food culture on cattle stations prior to the 1960s and food intake of older Aborigines in a community studied in 1988

Between 1988 and 1993 the International Union of Nutritional Sciences Commi ttee 'Nutrition and Ageing' established the international 'Food Habits in L ater Life' (FHILL) Program.(1,2) The FHILL program documented current and d istant past food habits of more than 2000 Caucasian and Asian elderly peopl e, which also included 54 older Aboriginal Australians in a community calle d Junjuwa in the Fitzroy Valley, Kimberley region, Western Australia. The p rogram primarily used a quantitative food frequency questionnaire to collec t food intake data. However, in some communities this was neither practical nor feasible due to differences in cultural interpretation of questions re lating to 'time', 'frequency' and 'quantity'. To overcome this hurdle, FHIL L was coupled to a qualitative socioanthropological methodolgy known as RAP 'Rapid Assessment Procedures'. This paper reviews published qualitative da ta using RAP to describe distant past food intake on cattle stations prior to the 1960s (1) and food intake of Aborigines aged 50 years and over in 19 88 in Junjuwa.(4) Aboriginal food habits on cattle stations prior to the 19 60s appeared to be more nutrient dense, due to greater food variety and hig her intakes of lean fresh and salted buffalo meat (probably high in omega-3 fatty acids), offal, vegetables and bush foods; buffalo fat was rationed a nd used in meat stews. High intakes of tea and sugar appears to have remain ed unchanged. Food intake was more or less constant from day to day in cont rast to the 'feast' and 'famine' days observed in the community studied in 1988, which was related to the pension cycle. In contrast to the more varie d cattle station diet, the community-dwelling older Aborigines in 1988 cons umed more than 50% of their total energy intake from three foods: sugar, fa tty beef/lamb and white flour (damper). Exploring distant past food intake on cattle stations has helped explain desirable and undesirable food prefer ences of the older Aborigines in 1988. For example, the desire for stewed f atty meat, salty preserved meat, onions, potatoes, white leavened and unlea vened bread (damper), rice, oats, salty sauces/curry, sugar and tea, but a lack of desirable oils, leafy greens, yoghurt, legumes and nuts is partly a reflection of the food habits and preferences of Anglo-Australians in the bush more than 50 years ago.