Let Food Be Our Medicine: Adaptation of Cultural Ethnographic Methods to Create Effective Nutrition Guidelines

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), established to combat the rise of chronic disease in America, serve as the primary source of current nutrition science in the U.S. These guidelines dictate nutrition policy, programming, and medical efforts nationwide. Rates of diet-related chronic disease, however, continue to increase, despite the efforts of the DGAs and subsequent programming. This is particularly prevalent in low income communities and communities of color. In examining the DGAs, we found a lack of relevant discussion regarding the impacts of cultural differences on nutritional health. Efforts to integrate culture were limited to static cultural competency discourse. Thus, we propose an alternative model to understanding cultural experiences within nutrition. An in-depth literature review revealed the importance of three elements as a part of the cultural ethnographic model: structural barriers and inequities, cultural consonance, and cultural healing methods. In an effort to apply this framework to a sample population, we looked at experiences of South Asian populations in and around the United States to create a survey format that incorporates ethnographic considerations into guidelines on nutrition