Meanings of food, eating and health in Punjabi families living in ...

Article
Meanings of food, eating and
health in Punjabi families living
in Vancouver, Canada
Gwen E Chapman a , Svetlana Ristovski-Slijepcevic a and
Brenda L Beagan b
a Food, Nutrition and Health, University of British Columbia, Canada
b School of Occupational Therapy, Dalhousie University, Canada
hej
Health Education Journal
70(1) 102–112
© The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0017896910373031
hej.sagepub.com
Abstract
Objective: South Asians living in western countries have increased risk for developing diet-related chronic
disease compared to Caucasians of European heritage. To increase understanding of social and cultural factors
associated with their food habits, this study examined the meanings of food, health and well-being embedded
in the food practices of families of Punjabi heritage living in Metro Vancouver, Canada.
Design: Qualitative research design.
Setting: Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Method: Data collection included individual interviews with 39 members of 12 families of Punjabi Sikh
origin (ages 13 to 70 years) and participant observation of a grocery shopping trip and family meal. Themes
were generated through constant comparative analysis of transcripts to describe, organize and interpret
influences on participants’ food decision-making in families.
Findings: Participants’ descriptions of their eating habits were characterized by contrasts between
elders’ reliance on traditional Indian foods and young people’s desire for their diets to include at least some
‘western’ food. Participants articulated two different understandings of how food habits affect physical health:
a scientific approach that related specific food components (eg, fat, cholesterol, vitamins) to risk of chronic
disease, and a view based on centuries of traditional knowledge about food. Food choice was also shaped by
concerns for the psychosocial well-being of individual family members, exemplified by women’s attention to
food preferences of individuals in the family.
Conclusion: These findings add to understanding of the varied ways food practices are implicated in
constructing ethnic identities, and provide insight into cultural influences on health behaviours.
Keywords
family food practices, food choice, South Asians, Canada
Introduction
South Asians living in Canada, European Union countries and the United States are at increased
risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, compared to
Caucasians living in the same countries 1–5 . Historically, these conditions were much less common
in South Asian countries (that is, the Indian sub-continent, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh)
Corresponding author:
Gwen E Chapman, Food, Nutrition and Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Email: gwen.chapman@ubc.ca

Chapman et al. 103
but incidence is increasing there as well, in conjunction with the processes of urbanization and
westernization 6 . Diet change has been suggested as a primary contributor 7 . Compared to diets in
their region of origin, South Asians living in Britain have diets higher in energy and fat 8 , containing
more meat, sugar and fast foods 9 , and less vegetables, fish and dairy products 9 . In Scotland,
immigrant South Asians’ diets had a more atherogenic profile than the diets of British-born South
Asians or the general population, with higher energy, per cent energy from fat and per cent energy
from saturated fat 10 . A Canadian study, in contrast, showed that South Asian Canadians consumed
less total fat than Canadians of European, Chinese and Aboriginal origins, but higher amounts of
sugar and total carbohydrate 11,12 . Despite the variations in findings, this body of research suggests
that diet contributes to disease burden in migrant South Asians and provides evidence for the need
for health promotion and nutrition education services for this group.
Provision of culturally sensitive health education programmes requires not only that such
programmes are attentive to observable characteristics of the target group, such as language and
foods commonly eaten, but also that they incorporate understanding of cultural, social, environmental
and historical influences on health behaviours 13 . Yet some South Asians in western countries
have reported that dietary advice does not take into account how their food practices are
shaped by culture or migration 14,15 . Many programmes attempt to rectify ‘deficiencies’ in knowledge
or ‘incorrect’ dietary practices, rather than building on the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
that already exist within communities to promote healthier lifestyles and improve quality of life 15,16 .
Some qualitative researchers have begun to address this need by examining social and cultural
factors associated with dietary practices of first and second generation South Asian migrants.
Findings have highlighted use of, preferences for and beliefs about traditional South Asian foods
compared to ‘western’ foods 17–20 , as well as the cultural significance of foods for entertaining and
celebrations 21,22 . Much of this research has been conducted in Britain and has examined food
practices from the perspective of individuals rather than within family contexts. Few studies have
explored food practices within the context of everyday family food decision-making, such as the
perspectives of family members from different generations regarding the meanings of food, health
and well-being that influence everyday family food decision-making. With one exception 19 , no
research has addressed the cultural meanings of food practices for South Asians in Canada.
We therefore conducted this study to examine the meanings of food, health and well-being that are
embedded in the food practices of Punjabi families living in Metro Vancouver, Canada. With an estimated
population of 90,000, South Asians comprise 4.5 per cent of Vancouver’s total population, the
second largest visible minority group in Vancouver after Chinese 23 . Most members of this community
are Punjabi Sikhs, originating from rural areas in the Punjab region of northern India. The community
has existed since the early 1900s, with most immigration having taken place since the 1970s.
Materials and methods
The data presented in this paper were collected as part of a larger qualitative study of family food
decision-making in specific ethno-cultural groups in Canada 24–26 . Following approval from the
University’s Research Ethics Board, Punjabi families living in Vancouver were recruited through
key informants and snowball sampling. Purposive sampling recruited families from varied circumstances,
including time living in Canada, family structure, education and occupation. All participating
families identified themselves as of both Punjabi background and Sikh religion. These
identities reflect the majority of Punjabi families who have settled in Vancouver, yet differentiate
from more generalized ‘South Asian’ or ‘Indo Canadian’ identities. While the two ‘Punjabi’ and
‘Sikh’ identities are often used interchangeably by the community itself, there are intergenerational
differences in how the religious aspects are drawn upon 27 .

104 Health Education Journal 70(1)
To allow exploration of intergenerational influences, each family included at least one woman
aged 25–55 years and two others over 13 years who were willing to be interviewed. Because many
families lived in multigenerational households, participants included middle-generation adults, their
children or children-in-law (here referred to as ‘youth’) and their parents or in-laws (here referred to
as ‘elders’). Family members were generationally categorized based on life-stage and relationship in
the family, so that an ‘adult woman’ was a woman who had children and/or parents/parents-in-law
living with her in the family. This woman was also considered the main food provisioner in the
family, although she sometimes shared this role with her mother/mother-in-law. Of the 12 participating
families, three were nuclear families with an adult male, adult female and one or more children,
one was a single mother with young adult children, and eight were multi-generational.
As shown in Table 1, 39 individuals were interviewed, including 13 youth, 19 adults and 7
elders. The sample included a disproportionate number of women, partially because of our requirement
that each family include an adult woman who was willing to be interviewed, but also because
the women in each family were more inclined to agree to be interviewed. All youth were in public
school or university, or had completed university. All but one youth had been born in Canada; one
teen had emigrated from England four years previously. Adults tended to be well-educated, with
some post-secondary education. Most had migrated to Canada from India, although three adults had
emigrated from England four to 13 years previously. The elders had little or no formal education
and had emigrated from India five to 36 years previously. Most families had multiple wage earners,
with relatively high household incomes.
Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in the family’s home by a bilingual
Punjabi-Canadian interviewer, in the language preferred by the participant. The interview guide
Table 1. Participant socio-demographic information
Youth Adults Elders Total
(n 13) (n 19) (n 7) (n 39)
Sex Female 10 11 6 27
Male 3 8 1 12
Age (years)
Education
1219 5 5
2029 8 1 9
3039 5 4
4049 9 9
5059 4 1 5
60 6 6
No formal or elementary 6 6
Junior High 5 3 1 3
High School 1 7
Post Secondary/college 6 6
University 8 8 16
Not Reported 1 1
Years living in Canada Born in Canada 12 12
04 1 4 5
59 2 3 5
1019 5 2 7
2029 5 5
30 3 2 5

Chapman et al. 105
included questions about family and individual eating patterns; the influence of food preferences,
health concerns, cost and culture; how food decisions were made; and changes over time. Data
collection also included two participant-observation components. The interviewer accompanied
the family’s usual grocery buyer on a shopping trip to a grocery store where the family usually
bought food, to observe the routines, patterns and food decision-making processes that occur while
shopping for food. The interviewer also attended one family meal to observe preparation, cooking,
eating and clean-up activities of family members. Interviews and shopping trips were recorded and
transcribed verbatim, and field notes were recorded for the meal observations. Interviews conducted
in Punjabi were translated at the time of transcription by a bilingual transcriber. Adequacy
of translation was verified by the original interviewer.
Data were analyzed inductively using a constant comparative method. Themes were generated
through in-depth examination of transcripts by sorting, clustering and comparing segments of text
to describe, organize and interpret the influences on participants’ food decision-making 28 .
Findings
Food practices in Punjabi Vancouver families
Participants talked about family food choices being influenced by ages of family members, time in
Canada, health concerns, preferences and work schedules. However, the main theme emerging
from descriptions of what they ate was the contrast between elders’ reliance on traditional Indian
foods and young people’s desire for ‘western’ food.
There was consensus amongst participants that eating Indian foods meant eating meals consisting
of roti (flat bread), dahl (lentils) and subjee (vegetables). Some participants also mentioned including
a meat dish with the meal, but Indian meals were often meatless. Many participants were vegetarian
because ‘it’s just the way we’ve been brought up’ or for religious reasons (in this community,
many devout Sikhs are vegetarian). Others ate chicken or beef some days of the week, but vegetarian
meals the rest of the time. Regardless of whether or not the meal included meat, participants simply
referred to eating an Indian meal as ‘eating roti’. There was more variation in how participants
described ‘Canadian’, ‘English’, or ‘western’ food. Pasta and pizza were the most frequent examples,
but sandwiches, burgers, soup and salad were also commonly mentioned.
Elders preferred to eat traditional Indian foods every day. Eating roti was satisfying for them in
a way that other foods could not be. As one elder man said: ‘I stop feeling hungry and am satisfied
if I eat roti … It is important for me to eat roti at least once a day.’ In contrast, many teen and young
adult participants preferred to eat Indian meals only occasionally. One young man said: ‘Cultural
foods – maximum four meals a week. No more. Like, you know, I can’t eat roti seven days a week.
Breakfast and lunch, it’s always western food, right, and half of the time dinner is western food.’
Participants in the middle generation were less predictable in their preferences. Some adults found
it easy to eat foods from both cultures: ‘I like both Indian and Canadian food; same is the case with
my husband, so we both usually eat what is cooked.’ Others, however, craved Indian food: ‘I can’t
survive without roti for more than 2 days. I look for roti whenever I can get it.’ Interestingly, both
of these adults had lived in Canada for the same length of time: 24 years.
Meanings of food and well-being
Participants’ discussions of the reasons for and effects of their food choices revealed two dominant
themes: association of food practices with physical health, and supporting the psychosocial
well-being of family members.

106 Health Education Journal 70(1)
Physical well-being. All participants were aware of, and discussed frequently, the relationship between
food and the body. Some participants’ beliefs reflected a nutritional science approach to food and
health focusing on long-term implications of specific ways of eating. Many comments included
general references to ‘being healthy’, while other statements were about diet affecting risk for
specific diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. For example, when asked how healthy
she thought her eating habits were, one woman responded:
I have a sweet tooth so I tend to eat sweet stuff, cakes and stuff. I eat more than I should probably. [But]
overall it’s not bad. I am eating vegetables and stuff, but I probably should be cutting back on more of the
greasy stuff [because] in my family there’s a history of heart problems so that’s a bit of a concern as I’m
getting older.
Participants with this long-term approach to food and physical well-being described ‘healthy eating’
in ways that reflected official Canadian nutrition guidelines: eating more fruits and vegetables,
reducing fat intake and choosing from different food groups. They also used the language of
nutritional science, referring to specific, often invisible, components of food that they saw as ‘bad’
(such as sugar, fat and cholesterol) or ‘good’ (such as vitamins, minerals and fibre):
Healthy eating would be making sure that you eat proteins, a certain amount of carbohydrates and getting
your minerals and vitamins in, and then making sure that you’ve got enough of each of the servings per
each of the food groups again.
Within this way of understanding food and health, there was a tendency to equate healthy eating
with ‘Canadian’ foods, and to criticize Indian foods as unhealthy. Participants talked about needing
to use oil instead of ghee or butter in their cooking, using low fat instead of whole milk, and the
high sugar content of Indian sweets. As a 21-year-old woman said:
I guess the way we make our food and stuff, like it’s all enriched with oil and salt and all that. Even though
we do have lots of vegetables and stuff but even our sweets are very sweet, like they’re over packed with
sugar and so I guess that doesn’t always promote healthy eating.
At the same time, these participants also identified some Canadian food, particularly ‘junk food’
and ‘fast food’, as unhealthy.
In contrast to the nutritional science approach to food and physical well-being, some participants
employed knowledge based on wisdom passed down for generations in their culture, and
their own bodily experiences. They believed traditional Indian foods are healthy because they
have eaten that way ‘from the beginning’ and have always been healthy. The focus was on fairly
immediate effects of food on the body, such as providing satiety, energy and strength. When a
70-year-old woman was asked what she thinks is ‘good’ about the way she eats, she talked about
the importance of eating roti:
Roti has a lot of strength in it. Dahl and subjee. They have a lot of strengths. … It is very good for the health.
… Whatever I eat, I am able to digest, I am okay. It doesn’t bother me. So why should I have any concerns?
Participants also spoke of foods having hot and cold qualities, not related to temperature, but to
their ability to be cooling or heat inducing within the body. A 62-year-old woman explained that ‘If
you eat cold things then your body contracts and you feel sick, but if you eat hot foods then you
feel better and do not fall sick’. Ginger tea was frequently mentioned as a remedy for ‘bai’, a

Chapman et al. 107
condition variously described as ‘indigestion’, ‘nausea’, ‘sour burps’, ‘excess water in your mouth’
and ‘backache, stomachache or knee ache’. Some participants also talked about eating ‘pinni’, a
mixture of ground flax seeds, nuts, moongi flour and black pea flour, to provide energy and aid
memory. One adult woman commented:
They say that the black pea flour and moongi flour are very good for health. My mum and other elders. My
mum says that the flax seeds also help to reduce cholesterol and are also good for health and even nuts like
almonds are very good for health. So this continues from generations. So the main thing is that if the
person who eats the foods feels the difference, then it is worth it. If someone says to make it, and I make
it, but the person does not feel any difference, then there is no point to making it.
Elder participants generally (but not always) talked about ‘healthy’ aspects of eating in traditional
terms, while teens and young adults who were educated in Canada tended to express the scientific
way of thinking about food and nutrition and often either rejected traditional beliefs (eg, stating
that they do not believe in remedies for ‘bai’) or had no knowledge in this area (eg, many youth did
not recognize the term ‘bai’ when asked about it). Some adults from the middle generation drew
exclusively on one or the other discourse, as with ‘Mr. Singh’ (interview excerpt Figure 1), who
appeared to have no familiarity with the nutritional science approach. Most middle-generation
adults, however, related to both ways of thinking about food and physical well-being, often
drawing on them in a ‘mix and match’ fashion, as in the quote above where the woman refers to
flax seeds having specific benefits for reducing cholesterol (nutritional science approach) as well
as to the importance of both received wisdom from elders and one’s personal experience of one’s
body as sources of knowledge (traditional approach).
Adults who drew on both understandings of food and health expressed contradictory views and
confusion about the healthfulness of Indian food. For example, ‘Mrs. Singh’, an educated woman
who had been in Canada four years longer than her husband, talked about serving roti to her children
‘as it is healthy food and it is not junk food, and they will remain healthy’. However, later in the
interview she said, ‘We do not get all the nutrition from roti, so we eat food from different cultures ...
sometimes when we cook dahls, we lose its nutritional value as we cook it for a long time’. At the
end of the interview, when asked if she had any questions for the interviewer, she said:
Just that we should get information as to what is good and healthy to eat, especially in Indian food, as here
we come to know a lot about the English food, as to what is good and nutritious but not for the Indian food.
Like how good is dahl for us and how much should subjee be cooked. No one tells us these things.
Overall, the scientific approach to food and health was used and valued within the Punjabi Vancouver
families. At the same time, other understandings of food and health based on centuries of tradition
were prevalent. Individual members of the community differed in the extent to which they used
different approaches, depending at least partially on age, education, and time since immigration.
Food, caring and happiness. The second main theme that emerged from participants’ discussions
of their food choices concerned a different kind of well-being, the psychosocial well-being of
individual family members. When grocery shopping, planning menus and preparing meals, adult
and elder women were attentive to the preferences of individuals in the family, ensuring that
everyone felt loved and cared for. During grocery shopping trips, they often explained food
selections to the researcher by explaining that one or more family members liked and/or had
requested that food. One mother talked about feeling stressed when she was shopping because

108 Health Education Journal 70(1)
Mr. Singh was a 36-year-old construction worker with Grade 10 education who had immigrated to
Canada when he was 28. In this interview excerpt he is drawing on traditional understandings of the
relationship between diet and physical well-being, and indicates that he is not familiar with nutritional
science discourses of diet and disease risk.
Interviewer: What do you think is good about your diet?
Mr. Singh: My diet? (uncertain pause)
Interviewer: Like how you eat, at what time you eat and what you eat. What do you think is good
about that?
Mr. Singh: I don’t ever think about that. I just eat according to my hunger. I usually prefer not to eat
things which can cause “bai”.
Interviewer: Okay, what is “bai”?
Mr. Singh: It means if you keep drinking milk without boiling it, then you feel very tired and your
joints start to hurt and so we eat ginger soup. If we eat things that are “cold,” then we
must eat “hot” things, then you feel fine.
Interviewer: And where have you learned about hot and cold things?
Mr. Singh: From India only. Like sometimes, if we eat lot of cold things, then your back and your
knees start to hurt, and if you eat saunf [fennel seeds] then it will stop and you will have
to know that you had “bai”. So after eating a lot of cold things if you eat hot things then
you feel fine. …
Interviewer: Okay, and do you have any concerns about your diet? Like according to the diet you eat,
do you have any concerns about your weight or do you take any vitamins, or anything
like this?
Mr. Singh: I have never thought like this at all.
Interviewer: Like you do not eat meat. Have you ever thought that because of this you might have
some deficiency in your body.
Mr. Singh: No, I have never thought like this, neither do I feel like this.
Interviewer: Okay. In your opinion what is the meaning of eating healthy food?
Mr. Singh: It means that the person should stay strong. Everybody has their own opinion, whatever
we eat is healthy and the people who eat meat, whatever they eat is healthy as well.
Sometimes some people say to us that we should eat meat, but it is our choice. Then I
challenge that person and say that you eat meat and I eat vegetarian diet, come let’s see
if you have more strength or I have more strength.
Interviewer: So you, according to you the diet which you eat is healthy?
Mr. Singh: Yes, I think that roti is very healthy and even paneer [homemade cheese], it is also very
healthy.
Interviewer: Where have you learned about healthy eating?
Mr. Singh: Oh, from the beginning from India only, we have learned that paneer is very healthy
for us. …
Interviewer: Have you worried about yourself developing a heart problem or anything like this in the
future?
Mr. Singh: No, I have never felt like that.
Interviewer: So you have never brought any diet changes in your house?
Mr. Singh: No, I have never thought about this at all.
Figure 1. Interview transcript illustrating traditional understandings of diet and physical well-being
she had to balance the children’s preferences with what she considered to be healthy foods.
When asked how they decide what to serve for dinner, many women said they would prepare
what their children wanted to eat. This mother of three children (ages 8, 12 and 15 years)
described a typical scenario:

Chapman et al. 109
Sometimes I ask them [the children] what they want to eat and then I cook according to their wishes. …
Mostly they like the same. The same food is cooked for all of them. But one drinks juice, other likes milk,
so there might be difference in preferences like this, otherwise they eat the same food. Sometimes if one
of them says that he or she doesn’t want to eat roti and says that he or she wants to eat pizza pop then I
let him or her eat it.
A grandmother in another family stressed the importance of pleasing those who will be eating: ‘I
feel that they should eat and be happy’. While women food-preparers did not talk as frequently
about asking the adult men in the household what they wanted to eat, it was apparent that the
women were well aware of men’s food preferences. As one woman said, ‘Over the years I’ve got
to know their likes and dislikes so I won’t tend to make what they don’t like’.
Discussion
This qualitative study of the food practices of Punjabi families in Vancouver, Canada, contributes
to a growing body of literature exploring the social and cultural meanings underpinning the eating
habits of first and second generation South Asian immigrants. Findings add to understanding of the
varied ways food practices are implicated in constructing ethnic identities, provide insight into
cultural influences on health behaviours, and help provide direction for health promotion and public
health nutrition practice.
Meal patterns of participants in our study showed the simultaneous persistence of traditional
cuisine and significant incorporation of western foods, similar to what has been observed with
other South Asian migrant communities 7,17–20,29 . In these studies as well as ours, families served hot
meals based on traditional meal patterns most evenings. The western foods commonly consumed
as snacks, at breakfast and lunch, and for occasional evening meals tended to be easily prepared
foods such as convenience, frozen or take-out products.
A unique aspect of our study was the inclusion of participants from three generations. Although
others have noted that use of western foods is encouraged by children and associated with their
exposure to these foods at school 19,20 , our inclusion of the perspectives of youth, parents and
grandparents highlights how different values and preferences for Indian versus western foods are
most distinct between youth and their grandparents: some youth insisted on limiting Indian meals
to three or four times per week, while many elders insisted on consuming such foods at least daily.
The youths’ insistence on eating ‘Canadian’ foods can be seen as a tangible symbol of their development
of a Canadian identity, particularly in their interactions outside the home. At the same
time, many of the youth continued to enjoy eating Indian foods frequently (but not daily) at home,
and talked about enjoying this aspect of their culture, thus enacting a hybridized Punjabi-Canadian
identity 30 . Mothers and grandmothers supported the development of their children’s hybridized
identities by accommodating their wishes to not eat Indian food every day. The elders, in contrast,
had fewer social interactions outside of their family and community; their almost exclusive
consumption of Indian foods can be seen as parallel to their maintenance of a predominantly
Punjabi identity.
Our findings are also unique in identifying two distinct approaches to understanding relationships
between food and health. Other studies exploring these concepts with South Asian migrants
have focused on adults with diabetes 14,16–18 or cardiovascular disease 15 . These participants were
mostly older adult immigrants, and there are similarities between these reports and the traditional
understandings communicated by elders and some adults in our study. These include the emphasis
on strength-giving properties of roti, and some lack of understanding of the meaning of terms

110 Health Education Journal 70(1)
like ‘diet’. Chowdhury and colleagues 17 provide a particularly detailed explanation of how their
British Bangladeshi participants classified foods according to their nourishing power (strong/
weak) and the ease with which that power could be extracted from foods (digestible/indigestible).
The conceptualization of foods as providing strength and energy described there is very similar
to that described by some of the Vancouver Punjabi participants. Although the Vancouver participants
did not emphasize digestibility as much as the strength-giving properties of food, some
did comment about decreased ability to digest ‘heavy’ foods as they aged, and when they were
less physically active.
In contrast to traditional beliefs, many younger participants in our study articulated a nutritional
science approach to food and health that was mostly indistinguishable from that communicated
by European Canadians in another arm of our study 26 and showed familiarity with and
acceptance of official Canadian nutritional guidance. Thus, although it has been suggested that
in western countries, encounters between health professionals from the dominant culture and
clients from minority groups likely involve a meeting of different views of illness and strategies
to manage or prevent disease 14 , our findings suggest this is not always the case. Some clients,
especially younger people, those with higher education levels and/or those who have lived in
the west longer, may share some of the understandings of health professionals, either drawing
almost exclusively on nutritional science approaches, or using both traditional and professional
knowledges.
Finally, our findings show that many participants thought of their traditional foods as unhealthy,
or potentially causing disease. This devaluing of traditional Indian cuisines has been noted
elsewhere 14,18 . It appears that despite the nutritional strengths of traditional Indian cuisine, such as
the high content of vegetables and low meat consumption, the health messages that have been
heard by South Asian immigrants and their children do not emphasize this. Instead, perhaps because
most messages about ‘healthy eating’ do not portray Indian dishes, South Asian immigrants tend
not to equate their foods with healthy eating. When health professionals do talk about healthy
eating and Indian foods, the messages are about cutting back on fat and sugar – ingredients that
are increasingly consumed after immigration (as well as in India in recent years), but were not
common in the traditional diet.
Overall, our findings have several important implications for health educators working with
South Asian immigrants and their families. Educators should consider ways to emphasize the
positive aspects of Indian foods and food preparation methods that are considered both healthy by
western standards and tradition-maintaining and acceptable within the South Asian community.
This could include promoting the centrality of vegetable dishes in traditional meals, and highlighting
lower fat ways of preparing these dishes. These health promotion messages should incorporate
both traditional and nutritional science approaches, such as emphasizing ways to prepare and
provide traditional meals that are satisfying, strength-giving and protective against chronic disease.
At the same time, practitioners and policy-makers also need to provide information about ‘western
foods’, so that when family food providers are serving foods that are unfamiliar to them, they
understand that the degree to which these foods are ‘healthy’ can vary greatly, depending on what
ingredients the foods contain and how they are prepared.
Finally, health promotion and nutrition practitioners must take care to acknowledge the diversity
within the community, as not all members of the South Asian community define ‘healthy eating’
in the same way even when they are members of the same family. There are other contextual factors,
in addition to the familial context, that contribute to differing interpretations of healthy eating, such
as the ways in which the beliefs and food practices of members of the community reflect tradition
as well as adaptation to the new environment.

Chapman et al. 111
Acknowledgments
We thank research assistants Barinderjeet Chane and Lucki Kang and gratefully acknowledge the
Canadian Institutes for Health Research for research funding.
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