CULTURAL IDENTITY:Healthy Eating among African American Women - Essay Example

Owing to the high rate of obesity in women of African American ethnicity, these women suffer from many chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension. It is a common knowledge that some of the contributory factors include eating habits. Eating factors and living style in turn are sucked in a larger matrix encompassing both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that interplay at an environmental/biological lattice. The product of this lattice is usually seen in exacerbated health risks in people of different ethnic orientation.

According to Hargreaves, Schlundt & Buchowski (2002), it has been found that African American women usually have different options in terms of how they plan their meals. The interesting thing is that their planning is influenced by a number of factors such environmental, cultural and personal inclinations. On the other hand, there are usually a lot of attempts to eat healthy but they are made futile by competing factors such as high food prices and social influences (Kannan, S., Webster, et al., 2009). A cultural Competence Cultural competence alludes to the ability of the healthcare system to add a touch of professionalism in the delivery of health care to diverse needs of a divergent population.

Cultural competence is concerned with what barriers can be broken by health professionals as opposed to implementing or making a system comply with a certain conformation. Cultural influence on healthcare cannot be dealt with professional training but rather change of perceptions that may take some time to achieve (Kumanyika, S., Whitt-Glover, et al., 2007). In addition, these influences affect treatment processes and they are very important in determining the health profile of communities. One of the challenging conditions that are because of cultural influence is obesity which comes with an added baggage of social stigma.

Cultural competence has three main domains which are; Cultural Values and Biases Awareness This is the first domain within which self actualization occurs leading to understanding oneself with regards to attitudes and beliefs that revolve around nutrition counseling. In this regards it is usually endeared that an individual be aware of limits within which personal cultural competencies can influence health perceptions. In this realm, people should be comfortable with cultural heritage as well as appreciating the differences that may arise in consideration of other cultures (Airhihenbuwa, Kumanyika, et al., 1996). However, the most important component of this domain is the ability to understand that differences that arise due cultural differences do not necessarily lead to interactions between people of different cultures.

This can best understand in the light of obesity problem among African American Women who live in the society with other women and yet they have a relatively high rate of obesity (Kannan, Sparks, Webster, Krishnakumar and Lumeng, 2010). Client Views and Perspectives Knowledge This is the second domain of the cultural competency model according to PEN 3 model. In this realm, the clients or public knowledge on matters pertaining to their dietary habits or perceptions are articulated. The public is usually informed about its surroundings through different sources and some of these sources are not accurate.

In cases where the public adopts knowledge from cultural sources, the opinion may be erroneous which