Carlos' Blog

Continuing with the past blogs and my research on how the health of the Mexican community changes after coming and adapting the U.S. life style. In this blog I will go over the misperception that the American diet is healthier than the traditional Mexican diet in Mexico, the study mentioned in the last post said that the original Mexican diet is not healthy. These Mexican-American people have adapted the American diet stating that is healthier than the traditional Mexican food. But in the documentary titled Unnatural causes… is inequality making us sick? produced in 2008 by California Newsreel, studies found that the Latino community, in this case Mexicans, when they arrive to the United States, they are healthier than anyone else, but as they become “Americans”, they start changing their ways of living in the country, the more time they are in the United States, the more their health deteriorates because as mentioned in the documentary, immigrants start facing the hardships such as discrimination, low-pay jobs, isolation, racism, and living in a different environment and community as they are used to. Immigrants come to this country to work hard to have an improvement in their economical struggles. They must work 2 or more jobs to help their families back home. Also, it is important to consider that many have stablished their families here, which is even harder because the high prices of the rent and cost of living expenses for the whole family.

In my experience, I noticed how migrating to California in 2014 has changed my life positively but also negatively. In our home countries we don’t have the privilege of having big meals due the lack of money and that’s why we migrate to have those resources to feed our family. The little we produce in our lands, is what we often consume. Those locally products and animals grown and raised such as corn, avocados, tomatoes, grass-fed cows, chickens, etc. are healthier to consume because, for example, the vegetables and fruits do not travel long distances and are not Genetically modified products like many we consume here in the United States. In the U.S. to have access to organic or high-quality products, we must spend a lot money buying them, so it’s easy and affordable to buy products that most of the time are not organic, and in most cases just ended up buying fast food from a taqueria or burger/sandwich joint.

There are many factors that leads to an unhealthy diet while living in the United States, and I hope through these posts you are a way to make you think to find a way to stay healthy.

References

www.unnaturalcauses.org

A study made on Mexican-Americans women in rural areas of California showed that most of them have a different idea of how the real Mexican diet is. The interviewed subjects in the research conclude that the Mexican diet is not healthy. Mexican-American people have adapted to the American diet stating that is healthier than the traditional Mexican food. For example, Teresa (aged 28 years) described that eat healthy is hard due family tradition, she said “I try to stay healthy, I try but it doesn’t go-when you come from a Hispanic family is difficult because they’re used to eating big meals. It’s your heritage, it’s what you do and it’s difficult.” (Ramirez et. al, 2018)

Nicholas White wrote his thesis based on his research comparing the Mexican-American community living in Laramie, WY., and the people living in Santa Elena, a Yucatecan village in Mexico. He conducted many interviews from people of the two locations to gather data about their diets and rising in obesity. The two locations are rural which was easy to conduct the research. White mentions that many common factors rising obesity of Mexican-Americans in Wyoming and the population of the village of Santa Elena such as consuming foods with high volume of calories, the frequency of eating, the lack of education about obesity and healthy diets, but how this can be possible if the Yucatecan diet in Santa Elena is healthier compared to eating processed meats, non-organics vegetables in the U.S… “All of my interviewees agreed that the Yucatecan diet primarily consists of beans, squash, corn (tortillas), onion, tomato, peppers, chicken, and pork.  They also agreed that the bulk of the foods eaten at meals come from the milpa[1], the parcela[2] or are homegrown (2016). An interviewee from Laramie said that he also consumes rice, beans and tortillas because those products are cheap and easy to cook. Unfortunately, neither the traditional Mexican diet in Santa Elena nor the Mexican-American community in Laramie have fully healthier diets. They have introduced drinks with higher proportions of sugar like high corn syrup, packaged foods, processed meats with preservatives. (White, 2016)

I think it is important to note that most people who are born in the United States adapt to the tastes of the American fast food such as burgers, fries, sandwiches and made to grab-and-go. But I also think that the Mexican diet in the United States is like fast food such as tacos, burritos, nachos that many people can buy at any time of the day, we say is Mexican diet because it is what we are used to consume once we arrive to the country but for those who were born here in the U.S. they do not know the traditional Mexican food prepared in the homes of Mexico. There are other Mexican dishes, but those are not offered at Mexican restaurants in the U.S. such as the food made at home by our mom or grandma. Usually, meals made at home are healthier than buying fast food either Mexican or American because it has more taste, and nothing is compared to the home-made food. As an immigrant, I know this because I’ve been through the experience of changing my eating habits from home-made food by my grandmother and the food I eat here, which is mostly fast food due the lack of time by working or attending school, but for others it can be working two jobs or long hours. Arriving to a country like the U.S. where people have access to even more packaged and processed foods full of preservatives affect the way people eat.

In conclusion, Mexicans immigrants suffer of discrimination, stress, low-pay jobs, and inequality to access the health care system, which contributes negatively to their lives.

References

Ramirez, Susana A., et. al, “Questioning the Dietary Acculturation Paradox: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Relationship between Food and Ethnic Identity in a Group of Mexican-American Women”, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Volume 118, Issue 3, 2018, Pages 431-439, ISSN 2212-2672, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2017.10.008. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212267217316994)

White, Nicholas E., “A Comparative Analysis of the Mexican vs Mexican-American Diet and Rates of Obesity through Two Case Studies” (2016). Honors Theses AY 15/16. 53. http://repository.uwyo.edu/honors_theses_15-16/53

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[1] A milpa is a cropping field in which maize, beans, and squash are grown in rotation.  It is often a small clearing in a naturally forested area.

[2] A parcela is federally owned land that has been divided into plots for agricultural purposes.

In order to develop my stance on this issue, I am looking behind the scenes of the position stakeholders take. It is important to know stakeholders’ interests because they are the ones that most of the time are benefited or affected. Also includes people who have a strong interest in the issue even though their relatives and friends are not directly affected by it.

 Primary stakeholders hold this position because they are the ones directly affected or benefited. For example, the minimum wage in a city which benefits employees but affect owners.

Secondary stakeholders are the group of people who are indirectly affected by the regulation of a law or any other action taken in the area, town, city or state.

Key stakeholders are the people who have a positive or negative effect on a social issue. Some examples of stakeholders are government officials, funders or CEOs. More importantly, this group of people have the power to make significant changes in something.

In the book Mexican Americans and Health: ¡Sana! ¡Sana!, by Adela de la Torre and Antonio Estrada talk about the roots of how Mexicans and Mexican-Americans have a hard time accessing the U.S. Health care system and the effects it has on them. Also, the location where they have settled plays an important role to their health. (www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1814fxr.12)

In the journal article The Health of Hispanics in the Southwestern United States: An Epidemiologic Paradox by Kyriakos S. Markides and Jeannine Coreil they focused on the Hispanic population, especially the Mexican American community since they are the largest subgroup in the United States. In their research they talk about certain diseases that Mexican-Americans potentially can have in the future, such as cardiovascular diseases or cancer. They mention that in the 1950s, deaths relating to those diseases were very low compared to whites. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4627869)

These two sources helped me find important information about the Mexican-American community living in the United States. While reading, I was able to learn some of the factors why this group of people are facing health issues in the country. Also, I was able to get information on data of diseases affecting them.

References

De la Torre, Adela, and Antonio Estrada. Mexican Americans and Health: ¡Sana! ¡Sana! University of Arizona Press, 2015. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1814fxr.

Markides, Kyriakos S., and Jeannine Coreil. “The Health of Hispanics in the Southwestern United States: An Epidemiologic Paradox.” Public Health Reports (1974-), vol. 101, no. 3, 1986, pp. 253–265. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4627869

Thanks for joining me!

In this educational blog you will learn more about the Health of the Mexican Community living in the United States of America.

Hello! My name is Carlos Gomez, a current college student at San Francisco State University, and I am majoring in Business Administration.  This spring semester I will be researching about nutrition in the Latino community, specifically in the Mexican communities around the United States.  This research is out of my major, but I want a blog about this topic because it is important is challenging and one of the biggest challenge migrants face is maintaining healthy eating habits.  People change their eating habits. I assume that many people don’t eat healthy or exercise to maintain good healthy habits due to them having to work multiple jobs and long hours. There just isn’t enough time in the day to exercise and many resorts to eating food on the run. In this country time flies. One goal of mine is to find what consequences from these unhealthy eating habits and work schedule plays a role in health decline in the future after establishing themselves in a new country.  I want to research what types of diseases Mexican migrants can get if they keep up with  an unhealthy diet. Also, I will try to find solutions that could improve people’s health.