You can order tacos without a side of disrespect

We should not uphold one culture and its food and use it as a barometer for what is healthy and what is not healthy. Doing so only forces assimilation.

“I don’t see the big deal. Some people just want to eat healthier, and it’s not personal.” This was a comment from a person attending a conference that I spoke at. Guess what the topic of my presentation was? If you guessed “Food Shaming,” you’d be correct. And I have to admit that this comment wasn’t made directly to me, I overheard it when I was in the bathroom stall, and no one knew I was in there. Yes, it was just like a television or movie moment when the protagonist overhears comments made about her by some of the other characters. And there I was, living this moment out.

You’re probably wondering what brought on these comments. Part of my presentation on “Food Shaming” was discussing cultural humility, and I discussed the time a “clean” Chinese food restaurant named Lucky Lee’s opened in NYC (yes, New York City, the city known for its diversity) by a health coach who was not of Chinese ancestry. I cannot even make something like this up; read about it here. The restaurant has since closed due to the well-deserved criticism. The concept was a harsh lesson in stigmatization and racial insensitivity, but is not a stand-alone incident. I mean, someone’s reaction to this event was, “I don’t see the big deal.” So no, I’m not surprised when I see content creators on social media making a cultural dish not from their culture and calling it the “healthier” version. This is why cultural humility needs to be discussed more. 

Photo by Gonzalo Mendiola on Unsplash

For starters, let’s discuss what this is.

Cultural humility involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honoring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are.

“If you had to choose between eating tacos every day or being skinny for the rest of your life, would you choose hard or soft tacos?” This quote can be seen throughout Pinterest and Etsy, and it is one of my biggest pet peeves. I know it sounds innocent and cute (diet culture and fatphobia aside), but the implication is that tacos are tasty, yes, but also unhealthy. Skinny is implying health here (like I said, there is strong fatphobia here), and eating tacos would deter one’s ability to be skinny. This is not just limited to Pinterest, of course, because how many times have tacos or Mexican food in general been referred to as a “cheat meal?”

The idea that cultural foods (i.e., not Westernized cuisine) are not up to healthy standards and should be treated as “cheat” meals is not regulated to Mexican foods. Many different cultures also believe the foods that they eat aren’t up to par. Many times in the health and wellness spaces, there is a lack of cultural or ethnic foods represented, and if they are, maybe they’re on the “do not eat” list of foods. It might not seem this way because there are plenty of times when people talk of their love of Thai, Indian, and Vietnamese foods, which can 100% be correct. However, equating them with being cheat meals or a “bad day” is basically calling them unhealthy. The discussion of food is already binary with the good versus bad mentality and putting different foods on a hierarchy. The black-and-white mentality when it comes to eating healthy food (especially here in the States) limits “healthy foods” to whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables only. While foods that are hailed as “healthy” do provide much-needed nutrients for the body, oftentimes, they conform to Western food standards, leaving other cultures feeling as though their foods are inferior.

This viewpoint disregards other aspects of eating that go beyond macro and micronutrients, including autonomy, culture, preference, ancestry, and variety. A study looking at the relationship between food and ethnic identity in a group of Mexican American women names food as an important part of culture and cultural expression. So when seeing that the Mediterranean diet (yes, there are many countries that make up the Mediterranean) is constantly hailed as the best and healthiest, not having Mediterranean food as part of your daily intake might make you feel inferior or feel the need to healthify your foods. Framing a cultural food as “unhealthy” indicates at least a couple of assumptions: that health is the primary motivator for its consumption and that the food would be more acceptable according to Western health standards if it were modified and improved. No matter what the intention, attempting to “improve” and “healthify” a culture’s food, especially when you are not of that culture, is troubling. You are saying that you set the standard when it comes to healthy and healthful eating. 

I want to be super clear here that there is always room to ADD nutrients to cultural meals, but again, this doesn’t mean that the culture as a whole is “unhealthy” or that even the dish needs to be completely altered. As a dietitian, I think there are ways to improve the nutrient density or nutrition composition of any recipe through different cooking techniques or ingredient swaps. It is so important to have competency with cultural humility before ever attempting to swap or alter ingredients, and is best done on an individual level.

Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people of various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, and social groups. Working towards cultural competence is an ongoing process, one often tackled by learning about the patterns of behavior, beliefs, language, values, and customs of particular groups.

So this means not opening a “clean” Chinese food restaurant when you’re not of Chinese ancestry. It means not making clean or healthier versions of cultural foods and being surprised when people of that culture and ancestry are upset and ask for an apology. Labeling a cuisine as unhealthy means ignoring wider systemic barriers that can contribute to health; it doesn’t only boil down to what we are eating. Factors such as safe housing, education, income, access to healthcare, and literacy skills, among others, also play a role in our overall health and quality of life. 

I remember when I was on vacation in Ecuador last year. It was amazing as it was spent multiple days exploring The Galapagos Islands. I went with a small tour group, which was great, but I couldn’t help but notice the theme of the conversation during meals. There was constant comparisons to the meals that were consumed in Paris and Rome. The comparisons were not positive, and the implication was clear, being that these European foods and meals were superior to the Ecuadorian food we were eating. I once questioned one of my fellow travelers when he complained about the steak that he ordered. We were in the Galapagos Islands so seafood was in abundance and also always recommended by our hosts because that’s what they were known for. He chose to get steak, and there isn’t anything wrong with this decision. Food is also personal and you are allowed your individual preferences. However, deeming Ecuadorian food as “not good” because you ordered food that is not part of their norm and therefore calling the food not as good as Parisian was not a great argument. I politely called this to his attention (after all, I had to spend multiple days with him, so getting into an argument was not happening), which he shrugged off but didn’t complain again.

It boils down to binary thinking. We can start to undo this type of mentality by realizing that all food is meant to provide more than just nutrients and nutrition. Cultural foods aren’t inherently unhealthy or in need of fixing. Embracing your cultural foods is the greatest form of resistance against a society that’s constantly asking you to change how you eat and adopt other food cultures. As an individual, you might want to focus on altering one or two ingredients or foods in a meal, but this is vastly different from putting a culture as a whole in an unhealthy category.

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Like what you just read? As a reminder, I wrote a book titled Live Nourished: Make Peace with Food, Banish Body Shame, and Reclaim Joy, which is available for preorder now! The topic of cultural foods is included, along with diet culture and intersectionality.