Dietary acculturation among black immigrant families living in Ottawa—a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

The study explores the dietary acculturation process among first-generation immigrant families from sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean living in Ottawa (Canada). In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 mothers. The interaction between accelerating factors and other mediating factors resulted in a spiral of dietary changes triggered by immigration. The spiral evolved at different paces from traditional to acculturated and toward healthy or unhealthy diets and was hard to stop or to change in its direction once it started. Findings call for enhancing immigrant mothers’ food access, food literacy and nutrition-related parenting skills, and their children’s school food environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Acculturation
• Africa
• black
• Canada
• Caribbean
• children
• diet
• immigrant
• migrant
• nutrition
• women

Acknowledgments

Authors are very grateful to the participants without whom this project would not have been possible. We thank associations, organizations, and individuals who supported the project and helped recruit participants. We thank Elise Pauzé and Dr. Naomi Tschirhart for providing helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consortium national de formation en santé - Volet Université d’Ottawa, and the University of Ottawa. Rosanne Blanchet was supported by doctoral awards from the Consortium National de Formation en Santé – volet Université d’Ottawa and the Fonds de Recherche Québec- Santé. The authors have no potential conflict of interest.