Culture Specific Characteristics that May Impact Nutrition Counseling Strategies: A Case Study
Culture Specific Characteristics that May Impact Nutrition Counseling Strategies: A Case Study
With regards to traditional foods, Josephine’s culture primarily depend corn tortillas and beans as the basic traditional diet. In fact, Josephine’s 24 hour dietary recall shows that she consumed the connoted foods for breakfast. Based on Josephine’s culture, preparation of the beans is through frying, whereas the tortillas are handmade and eaten warm (Herrin & Larkin, 2013). Other meals that are considered ideal in Josephine’s culture include, cabbage served with a slice of avocado or tomato salad, fried plantains, scrambled egg, a brand of coagulated cream often referred to as mantequilla, fried meat, white cheese, rice, and a cup of bottled soft drink or sweet coffee. With regards to social customs, the family is perhaps the most crucial social unit in Josephine’s culture. As such, the life revolves around family whereby children are dependent on parents and learn a lot from them.
How culture affects Josephine’s food choices
Notably, Josephine’s culture affects her food choices in a number of ways. Above all, Josephine’s culture has a high regard for family units; hence, foods are prepared and served within the family unit. This has an influence on Josephine’s choice of food because decisions are made as a family and not individually. For this reason, Josephine cannot prepare and consume foods of his choice. On another note, Josephine’s mother is the one tasked with the responsibility of preparing the food; hence, she is the one who makes such choices without necessarily factoring in Josephine’s opinion on the food to be prepared. In addition, Josephine’s cultural traditions have seasons that are divided into periods of fasting and repentance (Bauer et al., 2012). Certainly, the presence of such seasons has an influence Josephine’s dietary practices.
How to change my nutrition counseling strategies in order to establish strong lasting relationships with Josephine
Many at times, nutrition counseling entails all the processes involved in assisting clients make adequate and effective decision aligned with their dietary practices (Herrin & Larkin, 2013). Therefore, the strategies utilized should accommodate the client’s views; thus, create some sense of trust from the client regarding your opinions. In order to establish trust from Josephine, I will build her confidence and give her support on the decisions she should make regarding her dietary practices. In order to achieve this, I will accept what she thinks and feels are the right options for her on matters aligned with her feeding habits. However, I will respond positively to her views in a neutral way and offer a positive criticism in cases where I do not comprehend with her responses. In addition, I will show interest in her concerns by giving gestures in response. Another strategy that I will use to establish trust from Josephine is giving little but relevant information that would be helpful for her at the moment. Finally, I will establish trust by giving her suggestions and not commands on how she can streamline her feeding options to suit her needs.
Multicultural communication skills that I will use on order to have a successful nutrition counseling session with Josephine
Evidently, there are a number of multicultural communication skills that I will utilize during my nutrition counseling session with Josephine. More importantly, I will utilize counseling cards, containing information that is relevant to Josephine’s case. The counseling cards will be designed using a language in which Josephine is well conversant with. Secondly, I will devise flip charts that would aid in counseling Josephine to make adequate nutrition aligned decisions. Overall, I will apply both verbal and non-verbal communication on order to ensure a successful counseling session with Josephine (Bauer et al., 2012).
References
Bauer, K. D., Liou, D., Sokolik, C., & Bauer, K. D. (2012). Nutrition counseling and education skill development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Herrin, M., & Larkin, M. (2013). Nutrition counseling in the treatment of eating disorders (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge.
