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
[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.
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