Examine the high-risk nutritional behaviors associated with different cultures. Identify the historical perspectives, belief systems, and other factors associated with these high-risk nutritional behaviors for each culture. Write a 1,500-3,000-word paper on your findings in which you accomplish the following:
Summarize the high risk-nutritional behaviors practiced among two or three different cultures. Nutritional Practices In different Cultures Essay Paper
Discuss the historical perspectives and belief systems of these cultures that influence the high-risk nutritional behaviors.
Discuss the role of the health care provider in caring for individuals with high-risk behaviors for each culture. These may include, but are not limited to (a) education, (b) family roles, (c) spiritual beliefs, (d) health care practices, and (e) drug and alcohol use.
This paper requires minimum of two outside resources in addition to the textbook. Be sure resources are current within the last five years.
High-Risk Nutritional Practices In different Cultures
It is a known fact that diet is one of the most significant modifiable risk factors to many lifestyle and chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia (Hammer & McPhee, 2018). In many communities and cultures, however, diet means more than just food. There are attachments of meanings and significance to foods and occasions in many cultures that cannot be easily discouraged. Many cultures prescribe particular food for particular occasions. This happens right across the world from the most primitive cultures to the most advanced. It so happens that some of these dietary practices that have been practiced by these diverse cultures for centuries are good for health. However, there are also many others that are detrimental to the health of the communities that practice them. Unfortunately, it is not very easy to disabuse ethnic communities from their cultures because they will invariably find that to be offensive and disrespectful. In any case, the doctrine of cultural competence and cultural sensitivity requires that the healthcare worker respects the cultural practices of other communities even though they may differ from theirs or appear primitive. This is a dilemma that healthcare workers and especially community health nurses must grapple with if they are to provide effective preventive health services in the form of health promotion and disease prevention. Many cultures practice high-risk dietary behaviors without realizing that these are deleterious. These high-risk nutritional behaviors contribute to a high disease burden and mortality among these communities. Two cultures from opposite sides of the world whose nutritional habits and behaviors deserve scrutiny are Hispanics (Latinos) in the United States and the pastoralist tribe called Maasai in East Africa. The purpose of this paper is to look at the harmful nutritional habits of these two cultures from both a current and historical perspective.
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A Summary of the High-Risk Nutritional Behaviors Practiced Among the Latinos and the Maasai
Hispanics or Latinos
The culturally homogeneous group referred to as Latinos or Hispanics are originally native to Latin America especially in countries such as Mexico. However, due to the fact that this country shares a border with the United States; there has been continuous immigration from Mexico to the US. The immigration is both legal and illegal and it is economic in nature. It continues to happen today despite preventive measures put up by the US government that include a wall. It is human nature that when a person moves away from their cultural roots, they usually want to maintain their culture at the place in which they have moved to. This is especially true with adults who move to other areas in such of economic opportunities. An adult is a bit difficult to acculturate as opposed to a child who normally undergoes acculturation into the new culture they are thrust in.
Latino cuisine makes use of a collection of many ingredients that include rice, yucca, beans, maize, and chillies. They also incorporate generous quantities of cholesterol-rich meat and dairy products that make their foods particularly rich in not only calories but also cholesterol. However, for those who are enlightened; a choice can often be made between available alternatives. For instance, a choice can often be made between the healthier corn tortillas that have sufficient fiber and are low in fat and calories; and flour tortillas that are low in fiber and rich in fat and calories. In summary, the Latinos in the US are still attached to some of their unhealthy nutritional habits and have also been partly accultured into the US nutritional culture of highly processed foods low in fiber and rich in fat. This has exposed them disproportionately to deadly chronic illnesses such as colorectal cancer (Velasco-Mondragon et al., 2016). But one may ask why accultured Latinos should be disproportionately affected by colorectal cancer when non-Latino whites are not. The answer lies in factors that are referred to as social determinants of health or SDOH (Briant et al., 2018; Cruz-Correa et al., 2016). Nutritional Practices In different Cultures Essay Paper
SDOH are factors such as socio-economic status, educational achievement, living conditions, and access to quality healthcare (Powell, 2016). Because Hispanics are socio-economically disadvantaged, their household incomes are low compared to non-Hispanic whites. For this reason, they can only afford cheap high-calorie sugar-sweetened foods and junk foods. Their living conditions also mean that they can only inhabit the so-called food deserts where fresh but costly fruits and vegetables cannot easily be found. A lack of sufficient educational achievement also means that they cannot readily understand that consuming unhealthy foods is detrimental to their health. For the same reason, they cannot go for screening of conditions such as colorectal cancer. Lastly but not least, their low socio-economic status also means that they do not have access to quality healthcare. The only saving grace in this context is the expansion of Medicaid by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or ACA 2010 (Kominski et al., 2017).
The Maasai of East Africa
The tribe called Maasai that is found in parts of East Africa are a nomadic pastoralist community. They traditionally keep huge herds of livestock that also forms their source of food. This tells you from the outset that their cultural foods are composed exclusively of meat and dairy products. Precisely, the Maasai eat red meat (usually raw), drink cow and goat blood, and drink milk. Just as the blood is no boiled, so is the milk that is usually taken directly from the animal (Caudell et al., 2019). It goes without saying that apart from exposing the community to diseases such as brucellosis, eating meat that is raw also exposes them to hypercholesterolemia and cancer. The raw milk and blood also puts the Maasai at a higher risk of contracting various bacterial infections that may easily turn out to be fatal due to their usually resource-limited settings.
Just like the Latinos of the US, the Maasai of East Africa are also affected by the same social determinants of health such as socio-economic status, living conditions, educational achievement, and access to quality healthcare. Because of low educational achievement, they are not aware that these cultural practices related to diet are affecting their health and longevity. Again, the fact that they are pastoralists and do not live in one place for long means that their living conditions are poor and their access to quality healthcare services is also poor.
The Historical Perspectives and Belief Systems of the Two Cultures that Influence High-Risk Dietary Practices
The Hispanics are a people that have always cherished their culture especially with regard to traditional foods. Some of these traditional food festivals to which Latinos of Mexican origin and other Hispanics are attached include the Corn and Tortilla Fair, Sabor a Cabo, Three Kings Bread Fiesta, San Felipe Shrimp Festival, and the San Miguel de Allende Food Festival. These festivals have a rich history. For instance, the Corn and Tortilla Fair celebrates farmers who grow Mexico’s staple grain on chinampas. Cultural foods such as ponteduros and tlacoyos are eaten during this annual festival. During the Three Kings Bread Festival, the “king’s ring” or rosca de reyes is baked and a figurine is placed inside for someone to find. The tradition is that the person who ends up finding that figurine will host for the community a party on Candelmas Day. These are just but a few examples. All the remaining festivals and fiestas also have deep historical and cultural meanings attached to them.
For the Maasai of East Africa, they have eaten raw meat and drank raw blood and milk as far as they can remember. The tradition is handed over from generation to generation and practiced from age group to age group. During the mass circumcision ceremonies conducted for each age group as they are made warriors, herds of cattle are traditionally slaughtered and the boys being initiated must eat the meat and drink the blood raw. This the community believes makes them strong and fearless. Strength and fearlessness are attributes that were desired for Maasai warriors as they would be required when the community faced other invading communities during battle in ancient times. Even though civilization means that these battles no longer exist, the community has kept these nutritional and dietary behaviors alive to this date. This is despite the fact that the practice exposes them to serious diseases such as cancer and brucellosis.
The role of Healthcare Workers in Providing Care to the Members of these Two Cultures with High-Risk Nutritional Practices
The main role for healthcare workers in caring for the members of these two communities is health education. This means engaging in concerted preventive health education and health promotion that is culturally sensitive and non-offensive. This will involve giving information about healthy dietary practices without being judgmental or directly pointing out that particular foods eaten by the communities are bad.
References
Briant, K.J., Sanchez, J.I., Ibarra, G., Escareño, M., Gonzalez, N.E., Gonzalez, V.J., & Thompson, B. (2018). Using a culturally tailored intervention to increase colorectal cancer knowledge and screening among Hispanics in a rural community. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 27(11), 1283–1288. https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-17-1092
Caudell, M.A., Charoonsophonsak, P.V., Miller, A., Lyimo, B., Subbiah, M., Buza, J., & Call, D.R. (2019). Narrative risk messages increase uptake and sharing of health interventions in a hard-to-reach population: A pilot study to promote milk safety among Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania. Pastoralism: Research, Policy, and practice, 9(7), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-019-0142-z
Cruz-Correa, M., Cordero, F., Betancourt, J.P., Diaz-Algorri, Y., Lopez, S.M., Rivera, M., & Rodriguez-Quilichini, S. (2016). Implementation and outcomes of a community-based educational program for colorectal cancer prevention in Hispanics. Journal of Family Medicine and Disease Prevention, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.23937/2469-5793/1510042
Hammer, D.G., & McPhee, S.J. (Eds). (2018). Pathophysiology of disease: An introduction to clinical medicine, 8th ed. McGraw-Hill Education.
Kominski, G.F., Nonzee, N.J. & Sorensen, A. (2017). The Affordable Care Act’s impacts on access to insurance and health care for low-income populations. Annual Review of Public Health, 38. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044555
Powell, D.L. (2016). Social determinants of health: Cultural competence is not enough. Creative Nursing, 24(1), 5-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.22.1.5
Velasco-Mondragon, E., Jimenez, A., Palladino-Davis, A.G., Davis, D., & Escamilla-Cejudo, J.A. (2016). Hispanic health in the USA: A scoping review of the literature. Public Health Reviews, 37(31), 1-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40985-016-0043-2
For this assignment:
Examine the high-risk nutritional behaviors associated with different cultures. Identify the historical perspectives, belief systems, and other factors associated with these high-risk nutritional behaviors for each culture. Write a 1,500-3,000-word paper on your findings in which you accomplish the following:
- Summarize the high risk-nutritional behaviors practiced among two or three different cultures.
- Discuss the historical perspectives and belief systems of these cultures that influence the high-risk nutritional behaviors.
- Discuss the role of the health care provider in caring for individuals with high-risk behaviors for each culture. These may include, but are not limited to (a) education, (b) family roles, (c) spiritual beliefs, (d) health care practices, and (e) drug and alcohol use.
This paper requires minimum of two outside resources in addition to the textbook. Be sure resources are current within the last five years. Nutritional Practices In different Cultures Essay Paper