Food, Identity, and African-American Women With Type 2 Diabetes: An Anthropological Perspective
- Leandris C. Liburd, MPH
Abstract
In Brief
Dietary practices are deeply rooted in history and culture. Anthropologists have long recognized that food choices and modes of eating reflect many symbolic, affective, familial, and gender-specific associations. African-American women with type 2 diabetes may find that modifying their dietary patterns is particularly challenging given the highly ritualized nature of eating and food selection and the meanings encoded in foods and food-centered events in the African-American experience. When health care providers understand the historical and social shaping of food patterns, they can work in partnership with people with type 2 diabetes to shift cultural norms toward healthy eating.
Footnotes
-
Leandris C. Liburd, MPH, is chief of the Community Interventions Section, Program Development Branch, of the Division of Diabetes Translation at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Atlanta, Ga. She is also a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.
- American Diabetes Association
