Page 87 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) population. There are a number of issues that affect
the health and nutrition status of this culture. Gay and bisexual men are at a higher risk for eating disorders.
Lesbians and bisexual females are more likely to be overweight or obese, and the LGBT populations in
general have the highest rates of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use.5

In the diverse United States, healthcare professionals have the opportunity to serve clients from many
different cultures. Thus, it is important that counselors recognize the influence of cultural factors on dietary
patterns among various ethnic groups. Specifically, they must learn about each cultural group’s traditional
foods and food practices.8,9 Transmission of this learning requires effective communication between the health
professional and the audience.16 Active learning environments like this promote exchange of information and
collaborative conversation. Nutrition and dietetics professionals must recognize, respect, understand, and
acknowledge the cultural differences or variations to eliminate disparities in the nutritional status of people
from different cultural backgrounds. Otherwise, nutrition counseling and education will be ineffective.8,9,15

Sensitivity to Stereotype and Bias

As someone who serves diverse clients, it is also imperative that the nutrition and dietetics professional does
not stereotype people based on their national origin or their appearance. India, for example, includes several
cultural groups who practice different religions, have different customs, speak different languages, and eat a
variety of different foods. Although a healthcare professional may assume that all people from India practice
Hinduism, he or she must recognize that this narrow-minded assumption is not true. Similarly, practitioners
must recognize that all Arab people are not Muslim, while all Irish people are not Catholic. It is also
important that nutrition professionals recognize the cultural divide that exists among various generations and
groups within each culture. Individuals are unique in the degree to which they adhere to cultural patterns,
with some identifying with the dominant culture more strongly than others. Generally, most first-generation
immigrants cling closely to their cultural ways. Over time, the second- and third-generation offspring of these
immigrants tend to assimilate more completely into the dominant culture. They are more likely to adopt
American customs and ideologies, yet they also keep some of their native cultural practices and food choices.
Children, for example, adapt to new cultural patterns more easily than adults because they often interact with
people of different cultures at school or in social activities.7–9

Nutrition professionals must also be prepared to combat and prevent ethnocentrism and be able to
recognize their own bias. They must be able to look at their own culture and realize any biases they may have.
Each professional must put all biases aside and place the benefit, education, and respect of the client first.
Although culture creates harmony within ethnic groups, it can also create disharmony. Ethnocentrism is the
innate belief that one’s own values and practices are absolute truths. Ethnocentric people, in turn, have a
tendency to judge all others based on their own established belief system. They believe that the norms and
values of other cultures or ethnic populations are secondary to the norms and values of their own culture. To
prevent ethnocentricity from penetrating the workplace, nutrition and dietetics professionals need to know
that their opinions, viewpoints, and ideologies may differ from those of their colleagues or clients. They also
must understand that their own culture and worldviews may not be inherently “right.”12 This realization
requires that one knows one’s own culture, its origins, its history, and its beliefs.

Nutrition and dietetics professionals need to develop cultural competence in order to treat clients with

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