Page 92 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

Counselors must be familiar with ethnic practices.
Source: CDC/Amanda Mills.

Food and Nutrition Counseling Knowledge

To provide clients with effective counseling, nutrition professionals must have knowledge of multicultural
foods and the cultural food practices of various groups. They should gather information regarding cultural
food choices, food preparation methods within a cultural context, knowledge of cultural eating patterns,
family dynamics, typical meal patterns, and traditions during celebrations. Information specific to each culture
and community in which clients live is also needed. The counselor may determine the degree to which the
family or each individual within the family follows these cultural traditions by consulting with each family
member separately.7–9

How can we learn about cultures of clients and employees? One suggestion is to visit their neighborhoods
and go to the various ethnic food stores and ethnic restaurants. If possible, attend religious ceremonies in their
places of worship or other neighborhood events. Evaluate the presence of a food desert in your community.
An audit of where the community secures their food helps define challenges, opportunities, and barriers.
Another suggestion is to attend workshops or training sessions on cultural food practices. Nutrition and
dietetics professionals can also learn about various cultures by reading about the role of foods in health and
illness, approaches to health promotion, and treatment of disease and illness as well as beliefs about care and
caregivers. Nutrition and dietetics professionals can also examine authentic recipe books and try cooking the
characteristic foods of various cultures.

Focus groups can help nutrition professionals learn about their clients’ culture and dietary habits.23–25
During these sessions, the professional should explore the differences within cultural groups by talking about
food preferences, recipes, ingredients, portion sizes, and how certain food items are prepared. If unfamiliar
with eating a particular food, such as horse meat, Korean kimchi, Indian ghee, or hummus, the counselor
should ask for a description of the food and cooking methods. It is important to gather all of this information
so that one can respectfully incorporate family foods and cultural practices into proposed dietary changes.

While counseling people of different ethnic backgrounds, nutrition and dietetics professionals should use
culturally appropriate education materials. There are many options available from government and private
sources.7–10 Figure 4-3 shows the Spanish myPlate version published by the United States Department of

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