Question

Please respond to the following discussion prompts.
1. Locate an article on the nutritional beliefs of a culture or religion. Provide a summary of the article and include a link to the article. What interventions should be implemented to ensure cultural competence? Use evidence from one scholarly source other than your textbook or ATI book to support your answer. Use APA Style to cite your source.

Answer 1

Food habits are one of the most complex aspects of human behavior, it is determined by multiple motives and directed and controlled by multiple stimuli. Food acceptance is a complex reaction influenced by biochemical, physiological, psychological, social and educational factors. Metabolic conditions play an important role. The likes and dislikes of the individual with respect to food move in a framework of race, tradition, economic status and environmental conditions . In many cultures food has a social or ceremonial role. Certain foods are highly prized; others are reserved for special holidays or religious feasts; still others are a mark of social position. There are cultural classifications of food such as ‘inedible’, ‘edible by animals’, ‘edible by human beings but not by one’s own kind of human being’, ‘edible by human being such as self’, ‘edible by self’. In different cultures, certain foods are considered ‘heavy’, some are ‘light’ some as ‘foods for strength’; some as ‘luxury’, etc

Health workers should have an intimate detailed knowledge of the people’s beliefs, attitudes, knowledge and behavior before attempting to introduce any innovation into an area. The principle, which is usually more difficult to apply, is that the psychologic and social functions of these practices, beliefs, and attitudes need to be evaluated.

Another principle the sub cultural groups must be carefully defined, as programs based on premises, true for one group, will not necessarily be successful in a neighboring group. This also is an area in which we as health workers can receive invaluable assistance from social scientists.

Two widely recommended strategies for incorporating nutrition education directed toward children and youth into health promotion and disease prevention efforts are school-based nutrition education and the integration of nutritional care into health care.

The selection of food is often based on religious beliefs. For example, the attitude toward corn among Mexican Indians is religious. Often they cannot be persuaded to grow other crops on land where these would do better than corn, because they would rather have a poor crop of corn than a good crop of something that is not corn. Because of the strong religious feeling against killing or eating cattle, less than per cent of the population of India eat meat. Muslims and Jews can eat meat other than pork, but only if it has been killed in certain ways governed by religious laws.

Many people are strict vegetarians for religious reasons. Some are vegetarians because they believe in the superior virtue of plant foods. Others avoid certain foods simply because they do not like them. Storage and distribution of food.-In the Middle East and Far East, where the facilities for refrigeration, preservation, or storage are non-existent, and any animal slaughtered must be consumed immediately, so that the supply of first-class protein is irregular

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In other regions, such as the Arctic and parts of Africa, meat is preserved by drying. In parts of Europe and the Middle East, fruits and vegetables are not preserved, so that they can be eaten only seasonally. Sometimes traditional methods of preservation have been lost as a result of outside contact.’ In parts of Africa, poor storage methods have resulted in the development of toxic elements in rice.

Cultural competence achieved by

a)Awareness of one's own cultural view,

(b) Attitude towards cultural differences,

c) Knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews,

(d) cross cultural skills.