The Importance Of Food And Acculturation

Answer to question 1:

Description

In the past 30 years, the obesity rate among children in the US has more than doubled (Sealy 2010:1). Since it is parents who are responsible for making food choices for their children from the moment they are born until they become old enough to make their own, if we want to understand this recent phenomenon, it is the parents whose reasons and motivations behind choices of food and preparation methods we need to understand.

Firstly, New York minority parents tend to choose and prepare meals the same way their parents did it for them, maintaining the traditions and their cultural heritage. As one of the mothers from Puerto Rico responded when her son asked her why she prepares Spanish food only:

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acculturation is “a process that entails contact between 2 cultural groups that results in numerous cultural changes in both parties” (Berry 2004:175).

When one migrates from one culture to another, their level of desire for contact with the new culture on the one hand and the desire to maintain the traditional culture on the other determines how much their traditional culture will change, what habits will be discarded and what new patterns will be adopted. Depending on these levels the results of acculturation may be either positive or negative, varying from becoming a member of a new group of the mainstream culture to separation or marginalization (Berry 2004:175-179).

Strong cultural identity of minority populations can have a significant influence on their lifestyle habits. For example values of health and body image can play a major role. The perceived beauty ideal of body size for African American women is significantly larger than for white women, therefore putting less emphasis on maintaining healthy weight resulting in higher rate of obesity. Another example can be a Hispanic mother from Puerto Rico who kept on preparing Spanish food even after moving to the US (Sealy

The message and methods through which we will convey it to the receiving target group must reflect its values and norms (Benwell 2015). One of the top values Hispanics put an enormous emphasis on is family (Carteret & Ed 2014). Therefore it would be helpful to get involved the whole family.

It is also very important to understand why is their intake of these foods so insufficient. The prices of foods has in the recent years sharply increased, together with an increase in unemployment rate due to an economic crises, often preventing parents from being able to afford expensive quality foods such as fruits or vegetables (Sealy 2010:3). Therefore it is crucial to know what fresh local food has the target group easy access to and focus on promoting those.

When planning an intercultural campaign it is moreover important to be interculturally competent. According to Byram (2000) there are five elements involved:

1. Attitudes

2. Knowledge

3. Skills of interpreting and