Category Archives: Uncategorized

Culture and Substance Abuse

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Culture is defined in many ways. Based on Dwight Health, “Culture is a system of patterns of belief and behavior that shape the worldview of the member of the society. As such, it serves as a guide for action, a cognitive map, and a grammar for behavior.”

In general, substance abuse is related with the alcohol and illicit drugs. Illicit drug will consider culturally and change between different social groups. Substance use and abuse are depended on sociocultural beliefs. Culture plays an important role on affecting individuals about the potential problems they may face with drug use.

For the cultural group who have little exposure to a drug, rapid social changes exceed substance abuse. Such as, Anomie, or called loss of a healthy ethnic or cultural identity, may occur among native populations whose cultures have been devastated by the extensive and sudden influx of outside influence.

Substance use and abuse are related to an individual identity with his or her native culture. For example, native American elders believe that substance abuse are caused  by the loss of traditional culture. Higher rates of substance use have been found in persons who closely identify with non-Native American values and the lowest rates are found in bicultural individuals who are comfortable with both sets of cultural values.

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood Obesity Diet, Nutrition and Exercise

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Currently, childhood obesity has became a serious problem worldwide. Many children have difficulties in maintaining healthy weight. As we all know, obesity will affect our overall health; also, it has complications with heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure and other health issues. Therefore, healthy diet and proper nutrition are important to children’s growth. Additionally, regular exercise is necessary to lose weight.

Diet

A healthy diet plays an important role for children to keep in shape and lose weight. It is essential to help children understand the importance of proper amount of food intakes every day, and identify the difference between healthy food and unhealthy food. It becomes easier for children to adopt the healthy diet once they understand the different food options. Here are some resources for diet:

1) Snacks for Healthy Kids:  This resource gives ideas on snacks that healthy kids would eat. It is good resource when you are trying to build a diet.

2) Choose My Plate:  The basic dietary guidelines for a basic diet. This program replaced the food pyramid.

3) Growing Healthy Kids: This resource offers a variety of recipes and lesson plans to help kids eat a healthier diet.

4) Age Appropriate Diet for Kids: The National Institutes of Health outlines the basic dietary guidelines for children at the different ages of their lives.

5） Child Nutrition and Health:  This resource by the USDA provides games and sites to help your teach nutrition to kids.

6) Fun ways to Teach Kids About Healthy Food Choices: Parenting Magazine offers an article about how you can make teaching about healthy food choices fun.

Proper Nutrition

Having healthy eating habits is one of the important parts of fighting against obesity. Additionally, making a good food choice is also necessary for children to keep fit everyday. Therefore, it is essential for them to understand the nutrition contents in different food groups. Parents could also lead the healthier food options because they make food purchase in the home. Below are some resources for proper nutrition:

1) Nutrition for School Aged Child:  Learn about the different nutrients kids need to eat each day as the move from child to teenager to adult. As well as look at ideas for snacks.

2) Kids World Nutrition: This website provides trivia and games to teach children about getting proper nutrition.

3）Kids in the Kitchen: Review video recipes and ideas to help kids learn to make healthy food.

4) Easy Child Care Nutrition: Learn about the recommended steps for child care centers to take to provide proper nutrition while preventing childhood obesity.

Exercise

Becoming active plays an important role on fighting against obesity. Regular basis of exercise helps young people stay fit, however, the structured exercise program is needed for elderly people who want to lose weight. There are many resources to help people to work out and have fun:

1) Physical Activity Guideline for Children: Learn the basic recommendations of exercises for kids to complete.

2) Exercise Goals for Kids: This outlines the basic recommendations for exercise, as well as listing the benefits of regular exercise.

3) How Much Physical Activity Do Children Need?: The CDC outlines the basic physical activity requirements for children as well as gives suggestions on different types of activities.

4) The Benefits of Physical Activity:  Learn the basic benefits of becoming more physically active.

5) Get Active: The Let’s Move website offers tips and resources to help you and your entire family get active.

Obesity

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Obesity is a complex disorder involving an excessive amount of body fat. It increases the risk of health problems, for example, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Understanding the causes of obesity and how it affects us is important to everyone.

Here are some facts which cause obesity:

1) Genetic. It is more common for children to become obese when one or both of the parents are also obese. Genetics also have effects on hormones which regulate fat.

2) Overeating. People eat even when not physically hungry . Overeating is one of the main ways to gain weight, especially when we choose the foods which are high in fat or sugar. Such as, fried food, fast food or desserts.

3) Slow metabolism. Muscle (metabolism) burns more calories than other tissues. Compared with men, women have less muscle. Then women gain weight easier than men, but losing weight is more difficult for women. As we are older, we are losing our muscle and our metabolism slows. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce calories intake as we age.

4) Physical inactivity. Sedentary people  become obese more than people who are active. According to a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), physical inactivity is strongly correlated with weight gain in both sexes.

Among Minnesota’s adults age 18 and over, 62.3% of adults were overweight, with a Body Mass Index of 25 or greater; 24.8% of adults were obese, with a Body Mass Index of 30 or greater.

Understanding the effects of obesity on our bodies is helpful to reduce or avoid obesity. Obviously,there are no quick remedies for these problems, and it may need the combination of help from others and medications as well as some professional help for the people who are severely obese. Based on CDC (Centers for Disease Control), there are strategies to address the five target areas for preventing and reducing obesity.

1) Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables.

2) Increase physical activity.

3) Increase breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity.

4) Decrease consumption of sugar drinks.

5) Decrease consumption of high-energy-dense foods, which are high in calories.

It is important to pay attention to people who are obese, because there are many health risks associated with obesity including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancer and arthritis. It is important to control the weight gain and exercise to keep healthy.

 

 

 

 

Today’s Health Topic: Coronary Artery Disease

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The most common type of heart disease in the U.S. is coronary artery disease where cholesterol leaves deposit of plaque and it contributes to plaque build up over a period of time. Most people don’t know that they may have this disease unless there is a heart attack or possible early signs.

atherosclerosis_2011

www.nhlbi.nih.gov

Being aware of the symptoms can give people more information on how to identify if they may have this heart disease:

  • Chest pain that could frequently occur in your upper body and back
  • Short breaths where your body is leaving lacking oxygen due to the slow or very little blood flow from your heart
  • Heart attack which means that your arteries are blocked and cause your body to be deprived of oxygen

Call for emergency help if you think that you may be experiencing some of these symptoms. So what can cause this heart disease or add more stress to the heart:

  • Lifestyle/diet is a huge factor that affects your body. If people are not active enough or/and have a bad diet, they are more likely to develop heart diseases.
  • Smoking/drugs that could another stress to the heart and affect other organs besides your heart like the lungs, stomach, liver, and more.
  • Diabetes or insulin resistance
  • High blood pressure that may be genetics, kidney problems, thyroid problems

Resource: www.mayoclinic.org

 

Traditional vs. Modern Diets

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Before McDonalds or KFC dotted the landscape of Singapore, a small island nation in Southeast Asia, its residents enjoyed a staple of rice, meat and vegetables cooked in their Chinese, Indian and Malay traditions [i].  These days however, Singaporeans enjoy a westernized way of life that includes eating at fast food restaurants two or three times a week[ii].

Another McDonalds in China. Photo Credit: Asian Correspondent.

Another McDonalds in China.
Photo Credit: Asian Correspondent.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health decided to find out the health cost associated with this change in diet and collaborated with public health experts at National University of Singapore.  Over 60,000 Chinese Singaporeans were interviewed about their health and eating habits [ii].  What they found was not only surprising to many in the public health community but a real cause of concern for modernized Asian countries.

Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiac Deaths for Fast Food Lovers

Study participants who ate more than two times a week at fast food joints like Burger King or Quiznos were more likely to die of heart disease and develop Type-2 diabetes.  These results were evident after researchers controlled for other factors such as gender, educational level and weight.  Interestingly, Chinese Singaporeans who ate traditional Singaporean meals, like stir-fried vegetables or steamed dumplings, were not at risk for acquiring these diseases.

Popular Asian Dishes. Unknown source.

Popular Asian Dishes. Unknown source.

The results of this study along with other similar research findings convinced public health, medical and nutrition experts that good health is connected to maintaining cultural traditions, especially rituals that involve cooking food in simple unprocessed ways.

The Asian Diet Pyramid

Emphasizing traditional food staples such as rice, noodles, legumes, vegetables and fruits, along with some red meat, fish and poultry, the Asian Diet Pyramid was developed by Oldways Preservation Trust to encourage healthy eating in the Asian American community.    Oldways organization is guided by a simple premise that good health can be found through heritage [iii].

Oldways Heritage Pyramid developed by Oldways Preservation Trust,conjunction with the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Oldways Heritage Pyramid developed by Oldways Preservation Trust,conjunction with the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

A new generation of Asian Americans has heeded the call for returning to a more traditional diet used by their grandparents.  Young Asian Americans activists like Aileen Suzara, a Filipino American educator, environmental justice advocate and a natural chef, uses traditional Filipino food and recipes to understand and connect to her Filipino American culture and community (learn more about her here).

As more Asian countries modernize and look towards the U.S. as an example of western living, it has become evident that America’s obesity epidemic will also be exported along with the super-sized burgers, shakes and fries.  Asian Americans in the U.S. can look beyond this pattern of ordering food-to-go or eating meals outside the home and look within their own culture to find meaningful ways of achieving optimal health and wellbeing.

[i] Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, www.eatright.org.

[ii] Western-Style Fast Food Intake and Cardio-Metabolic Risk in an Eastern Country. Andrew O. Odegaard, Woon Puay Koh, Jian-Min Yuan, Myron D. Gross, and Mark A. Pereira. http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2012/05/31/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.084004.full.pdf

[iii] Asian Diet Pyramid. Oldways Heritage Through Health. www.oldwayspt.org.

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Who We Are…

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AMA Staff at the 2012 Hmong New Year in Minneapolis, MN

AMA Staff at the 2012 Hmong New Year in Minneapolis, MN

In response to the increasing disparity in health outcomes within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in Minnesota, especially among the newly arrived Asian immigrants and refugees, the bicultural healthy living concept was conceived.  This concept emerged from work initiated by the Asian Pacific American Community Network (APA ComMNet), a collaborative group led by Asian Media Access (AMA).  In 2010, AMA and APA ComMNet received a prestigious grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to participate in the REACH CORE program (Racial and EthnicApproaches to Community Health, Communities Organized to Respond and Evaluate) that seeks to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in the U.S.

As a member of the National REACH Coalition, AMA and APA ComMNet conducted outreach and engagement with Minnesota’s eight largest AAPI communities and collected qualitative and quantitative data to understand the systematic, environmental, cultural and social factors influencing the health of AAPIs in the state.  Guided by the MAPP process (Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership), AMA and APA ComMNet found that by moving beyond the aggregated data used for AAPI communities, various cultural, historical, institutional and societal factors emerged deeply impacting the overall health of AAPIs in the state.

Along with its partners, AMA and APA ComMNet have devised a strategy that will allow the Asian/Pacific Islander culture as well as the American culture of AAPIs to co-exist with the ability to use one or both cultural protective factors when needed.  The bicultural healthy lifestyle promotes a balanced approach to living a healthy and full life.

To learn more, check out the “About Us” page…

Balancing a Bicultural Life: How it Can Improve Your Health

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Young Asian American dancers during the Hmong New Year Celebration

Young Asian American dancers during the Hmong New Year Celebration

We live in a country where over 300 languages are spoken at home and one can find a native from every corner of the world.    Built largely by immigrants, the United States is a melting pot, or a salad bowl perhaps, of varying cultures and traditions.  Leading a bicultural healthy life, therefore, is the ability of immigrants and refugees to bridge two cultures, the American mainstream culture and their culture of origin, into one that allows them to live healthfully and happily.

Right now, however, many in the immigrant and refugee community are unable to find this balance.  They are in the losing end of a battle to overcome serious health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  Although seen as a “model minority”, Asian Americans are struggling.  With high infectious disease rates of Hepatitis B, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, prevailing mental health disorders including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, and an increasing number of obese and overweight members in the community, Asian Americans are not immune to the social and environmental factors that has deteriorated the health of all Americans.

By encouraging a bicultural healthy lifestyle, we hope that Asian Americans can find a path that allow both their Asian and American culture to co-exist with the ability to use one or both cultural protective factors when needed.

An example of a bicultural healthy practice is encouraging Tai Chi for 30 minutes a day as opposed to walking or running on the treadmill or employing the traditional Asian staple of rice, boiled vegetables and fish as opposed to eating in a fast food restaurant. 

This blog will explore the various ways and strategies to improve the health of Asian Americans and the community as a whole by living a bicultural healthy lifestyle.

Looking forward to your comments!

Topic for the Next Blog Post: Introducing the Asian Food Pyramid

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