We Are What We Eat: A Cultural Examination of Immigrant Health and Nutrition in Middle Tennessee

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine recent Hispanic immigrants to Middle Tennessee from an anthropological perspective to discover possible correlations to answer the research questions: how are Latino and Hispanic immigrant populations’ nutritional statuses affected by acculturation to the United States and to Middle Tennessee, and what factors come to play
in changing their own food practices? Results include information gleaned from previous ethnographic research as well as from interviews with local Hispanic immigrants relating to food insecurity, the impact of school lunches on immigrant children’s health, and possible remedies to
halt the declining health of immigrants to the Middle Tennessee. is research suggests that the immigrant experience is not the same for every group or even for each individual, that health outcomes of other immigrants dier according to their experiences of acculturation.