Question

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

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bpj/757

Food habits are one of the most complex aspects of human behavior, being 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. Age, sex and mental state are factors of importance. People differ greatly in their sensory response to foods. The likes and dislikes of the individual with respect to food move in a framework of race, tradition, economic status and environmental conditions1.

For most people food is cultural, not nutritional. A plant or animal may be considered edible in one society and inedible in another. Probably one of the most important things to remember in connection with the cultural factors involved in food habits is that there are many combination of food which will give same nutritional results1.

Culture consist of values, attitudes, habits and customs, acquired by learning which starts with the earliest experiences of childhood, much of which is not deliberately taught by anyone and which so thoroughly internalized that it is unconscious but ‘goes deep’ (Fathauer.G.H,1960)2. Food habits are among the oldest and most deeply entrenched aspects of many cultures and cannot, therefore, be easily changed, or if forcibly changed, can produce a series of unexpected and unwelcome reactions. Food and food habits as a basic part of culture serve as a focus of emotional association, a channel of love, discrimination and disapproval and usually have symbolic references. The sharing of food symbolizes a high degree of social intimacy and acceptance1.

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’, etc1.

The challenge to health care provider is to be culturally adaptable, to display cross-cultural communication skills, to remain aware of nonverbal cues that are culturally motives, and to move toward a trusting interpersonal relationship as quickly as possible.