What is the reason behind cultural competencies in dietetics?

CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND ITS RELATION TO NUTRITION AND DIETETICS: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Having a healthy and balanced diet is highly crucial for your overall wellness and staying healthy. Thus, having foods that are rich in enough nutrients is highly important. But one must also remember that there are certain cultural influences as well that can influence the foods that you eat and when you eat them. Various places and communities have various types of cultures and traditions and these can affect the ways of having food. So, it is crucial to have enough knowledge about the cultural differences- the various beliefs and traditional practices in different types of cultures and yet get all the necessary nutrients that are required in your body for healthy physiological functioning. This article is therefore to create enough awareness and understanding of the sources of nutrients that must be present in different cultures.

Cultural differences and the nutrients that you need: Here are all the necessary facts

When there are cultural differences in food habits, it is important to have an understanding of the various types of food patterns that are found in different types of cultural practices. Thus, it is quite obvious that the patterns of eating and the sources of nutrition too will differ from one culture to the other. So, when it comes to the matter of setting the diet of an individual, the dietician or the concerned expert should be aware of the patient’s cultural references to food habits and should therefore develop a communicative approach within the healthcare setting with the patients, to ensure that the patient is getting enough nutrients that are required. When cultural influences are related to the nutrition that a person is getting, it is important to educate the patients about the need for nutrients for faster recovery. This mostly happens with the consumption of foods that are rich sources of protein and such a type of food consumption varies from one culture to the other. Protein is one of the most common nutritional components to have, especially for people who are sick because it might help in better and faster recovery from various types of health issues. For instance, if you can examine the cultural eating patterns, by concentrating mostly on foods that are rich in protein then it would become clear that the eating habits differs in Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Middle Eastern cultures. It is because of this reason many experts suggest that there is a necessity for an in-depth discussion about food consumption when there are varied cultural competencies. Moreover, such cultural awareness should be present among healthcare providers as well, for instance, clinicians, registered dietitians, healthcare professionals, physicians, or anyone who is involved in the dietetics process for the recovery of patients. It is therefore necessary to know about the different cultures that are patient‐specific and how such matters are related to nutrition and eating (and are therefore related to the patient’s culture).

Culture and its influences are some of the most vital aspects of a person’s life. Cultural references are reflected in all the things you do- the way you speak, the way you dress, and even the foods that you eat. These are connected to some of the vital aspects of culture and tradition, such as religious beliefs, spiritual practices, and so on. Some experts (Sources) and their clinical observations have recently revealed that your perspective on wellness, healing, and healthcare are related to these as well. Nutrition education based on the patient’s culture is therefore necessary to engage in a meaningful healing journey for the patient, so that the physician can effectively help to recover faster, keeping the cultural influences intact.

What is cultural competence (in terms of food patterns) necessarily to be discussed?

Cultural competence is something that needs to be necessarily understood by the willingness and ability of an expert professional to be able to treat a patient effectively and appropriately without the influence of bias, prejudice, or without becoming judgemental about the existing norms and stereotypes. If experts and dieticians lack enough knowledge related to cultural competence, then conditions of health inequities and disparities among marginalized and diverse communities will continue to happen from the end of the healthcare professional or a dietician expert, and therefore, no impactful change can set in. As importantly it was published in recent stories to argue that cultural competence in the health industry seeks to make healthcare services more acceptable, accessible, relatable, and effective for individuals from diverse backgrounds (1, 2Trusted Source). To develop a healthy cultural competence to aid patients to recover as quickly as possible, it is important to try to respect the attitudes, beliefs, and values of people belonging to certain ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds, whereas on the other hand, a person’s own evaluation will start becoming more comfortable with any differences that arise. The differences are often seen in race, ethnicity, religion, and food practices among various cultures should therefore be considered to be some of the major aspects of knowing cultural competencies. There is a difference as well a diversity that is often found to pose certain types of challenges to the healthcare industry and providers, who must be adequately trained and skilled to include the nuances of culture in their consultations and advices.

Handling patient’s cultural competencies for the physician and dietetics:

• When you are handling patients who have cultural competencies, it is important to handle them in a culturally sensitive manner. Cultural competencies in the case of food patterns also extend to the ideas, customs, and behaviors of a group of people or a society and this will vary from one cultural group to the other. Though these cultural complexities are more fluid concepts in various types of ethnocultural communities, identities, and cross-cultural practices, it is better to have an idea about dealing with a patient’s cultural competencies, especially when a patient requires faster recovery. Experts and professionals who are caregivers and are in fields of practice like dietetics should have a clear understanding of the concerned patient’s cultural preferences and a cultural background study of the patient will help in better negotiation of the food patterns that they eat and they recover faster and more easily as the communication aspect becomes vital. To do so, there are certain culturally appropriate nutrition guidelines and nutrition therapy recommendations are essential when it comes to the matter of dietetics.

• In nutrition, it’s a group of strategies meant to address cultural diversity and challenge the cookie-cutter approach to nutrition education and dietary interventions among ethnocultural communities. This lets nutritionists and dietitians who have enough amount of knowledge and are skilled in cultural counseling techniques including culture in the discussions and recommendations. This includes nutrition guidelines and illustrations representing diverse food cultures with an expanded definition of “healthy eating.” They provide unbiased nutrition services that do not undermine culture’s influence on lifestyle, food choices, and eating patterns.

• Cultural competence overlaps with cultural sensitivity, awareness, and cultural safety, encompassing more than just race/ethnicity and religion, and it’s careful not to mislabel based on stereotypes (1, 3). A major aim of cultural competence is to build a system of trained healthcare professionals capable of providing tailored, culturally appropriate expertise (1). If you wish to know what culture is all about, yet it is not overt though, then the competence is almost one of the most vital skincare products, certificated or having jargon, dietitians and healthcare professionals alike.

What is the necessity behind cultural competency in dietetics and nutrition?

Certain types of social and cultural factors, such as food insecurity, socioeconomic status, people’s relation to food access, and so on often act as determining conditions behind the regular practices and food habits too, become a part of this cultural system as well. This may often result in various types of healthcare inequities and the types of physical disparities that may have been known to have existed there are more amplified and prominently found among certain sections of the society like the marginalized, red-lined, and underserved populations, and so on as they may not be given proper access to nutritious foods and food security. So, it is important to encourage healthcare providers to engage in conversations about cultural competencies in the field of dietetics.