Cultural Competency: Understanding Food Habits

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Cultural competency is defined as having the appropriate understanding of different cultures which allows one to effectively interact with different individuals, to ensure all diverse needs are addressed. Having cultural competency helps one to recognize some of the following things, and as a result, it helps improve trust and acceptability. One of which is understanding food habits. By understanding food habits, one will have a better inclination of what might be at the core of many illnesses and diseases, and will be able to advise care and treatment plans that the patient will be more likely to successfully implement. If the physician is culturally competent, they might catch a deficiency, for example, and they would have the ability to suggest all the correct foods to supplement it. …show more content…

Having a better understanding of their upbringing as far as exposure and adoption to certain sports or exercises, quality of resources such air, water, and medical facilities. Another is an understanding of whether they prefer conventional healthcare or more natural remedies and guiding their health care approach accordingly. The important pitfalls that often occur and we should be aware of that happen in the absence of cultural competency is non ideal outcomes of patients on an individual basis, which subsequently leads to wellness disparities in the healthcare system. Groups of people become underrepresented such as African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. A few examples are: an individual from a group being less inclined to listen if they feel offended from instructions from a physician who was not mindful of a cultural difference (not culturally competent), language discrepancies can cause unwanted outcomes, not offering food that caters to their cultural needs,