Episode 32: Cultural Foods
What are cultural foods, and why are they important to consider when we talk about diet culture?
I spent years as a young dietitian trying to convince people to switch from white rice to brown rice because I was told that brown rice was healthier – with more fiber and less refined carbs. But what happens when a healthy eating recommendation goes against your cultural food values?
What happens when you’ve been taught that white rice is the staple of every meal – to the point that you know you’re in a house of “your people” because you smell white rice cooking or see the ever-glowing red light of the rice cooker beaming from the kitchen?
My guest on this week’s Savor Food and Body Podcast is Tara Rivera MS
Tara is a fellow un-diet nutritionist, mental health advocate, and Ph.D. candidate who specializes in helping women of color return to their cultural food roots with food and their bodies.
Tara completed her Master’s in Integrative and Functional Nutrition in 2019. While in school, she became increasingly clear about how diet culture impacted her relationship with food and her body, all while disconnecting her from her Filipinx culture.
Tara shares this on her website…
“Body shaming in the Filipinx culture has become normalized in a way that we anticipate it at family gatherings. When we ask our elders why does our culture body shame? They respond with, “That’s just the way it’s always been.”
“Filipinx peoples have been colonized for almost 400 years, and generations have been taught that our culture is inferior to our colonizers. Because of this inferior thinking among the Filipinx American community, diet culture has become our way of living. Diet culture in the United States is “pervasive norms that emphasize thinness, control, and restriction around eating and exercise behaviors, and the moralization of how food plays a significant role in contributing to body dissatisfaction” (Faw et al., 2021).”
Listen to the episode to learn:
- Tara’s definition of decolonizing food and body, what that means to her personally, and why she’s passionate about helping other women in midlife do the same.
- How colonialism’s influence on food and the definition of healthy eating has contributed to disordered eating and eating disorders among women of color.
- Finally, Tara shares her advice on what women in midlife can do to help themselves reconnect with their cultural foods and nourish their bodies with confidence.
As the third episode in our eating disorders in midlife awareness series, this conversation paints a brilliant picture of how staying true to your cultural food and body roots will also help you create a positive healing relationship with food, your body, and your health.
Tara is a Certified Nutritionist empowering Filipinx/a and Latinx/a to break away from diet culture and colonial mentality around food and body image and re-engage with their culture food traditions guilt-free. While currently obtaining her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Tara also works as a nutrition counselor at an eating disorder residential treatment center. Tara is committed to bringing a sense of cultural humility when working with clients. Her nutrition counseling approach is informed by the principles of Intuitive Eating, body acceptance, and Health At Every Size®
Like what you heard? Don’t forget to leave a rating and review. This kindness helps other women in midlife find the Savor Food and Body Podcast too!
Resources mentioned in the show:
Tara’s website and Instagram @decolonizingfoodandbody
Hungry Planet; What the World Eats
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