Canadians Like Their Comfort Foods

Researchers at UBC and Dalhousie University have found that Canadian families, regardless of ethnicity, take comfort in traditional foods. Their findings also suggest that despite the comfort, some food choices may lead to above-average risk for heart disease and diabetes.

UBC Nutrition Prof. Gwen Chapman and co-authors interviewed Canadians of European, Punjabi and African descents in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Their three-year study is the first to explore the layered meanings of food choices in ethnic communities and will contribute to better health promotion and nutrition education.

The researchers found that most Nova Scotians of African descent value “black ways of eating,” choosing hot and spicy dishes or “soul food” as a way of asserting their cultural heritage.

In B.C., Punjabi families, especially new immigrants, routinely prepare two separate meals to accommodate elders who need dishes like roti, dahl and subjee to feel satisfied and younger family members who prefer to balance Indian and “Canadian” foods.

For families of European descent, “meat and potatoes” meals represent a source of comfort. However, they also place higher value than other communities on “healthy foods” as defined by nutritional
science.

reachout newsletter – UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems Issue 11 Spring 2009