Greater Dietary Acculturation (Dietary Change) Is Associated With Poorer Current Self-Rated Health Among African Immigrant Adults

Inter- and independent effects of region and race/ethnicity on variety of fruit and vegetable consumption in the USA: 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

“…Additionally, dietary acculturation in foreignborn populations may be a factor contributing to observed synergistic effects. Dietary acculturation tends to reduce fruit and vegetable consumption (40,41) , although there are differences between racial/ethnic groups and within ethnic subgroups (41)(42)(43) . As acculturation increases among Hispanic immigrant populations, consumption of legumes and fruit tends to decrease and non-leguminous vegetable consumption increases (41) .…”

Common Health Concerns in African Immigrants in the Us- Implications for the Family Physician

“…It is not clear whether diabetes in some of these countries like Somalia existed prior to departing their native countries [6]. African immigrants may suffer from hypertension and diabetes on arrival to the US because of the consumption of inorganic foods compared to native foods in their countries [17,24]. Overall, African immigrants have better health outcomes in diabetes, hypertension and stroke compared to their African American counterparts and suffer less end organ damage from hypertension when compared to their African American counterparts [15,25].…”

“…In Nigerian immigrant women, depression is an unacceptable diagnosis for the same reasons [6,28]. Older African immigrants may not readily assimilate the host environment compared to younger immigrants for example, they may have had healthier eating practices in their countries before relocation [24]. In spite of African immigrant men and women working for a living, women don't report domestic violence because of cultural differences and financial dependence on spouses as well the need to have an intact marriage [26].…”

“…Ethiopians and Somali have sugar common to cultural foods from both countries [14,15]. Changing diet from high fiber diets to sugar based diets is usual [24]. However, Nigerian immigrant men had greater intake of organic foods, more physical activity and healthier smoking habits than their counterparts who did not migrate and these are in line with the availability of these foods and the appropriate environment [30].…”

Introduction: Cultivating the Migration‐Food Security Nexus

“…Research on immigrants from Asia (Nguyen et al., ; Oh and Saito, ), Latin America (Guarnaccia et al., ; Vahabi et al., ; Vera‐Becerra et al., ) and Africa (Delisle et al., ; Gele and Mbalilaki, ; Méjean et al., ; Okafor et al., ; Renzaho and Burns, ) suggests that irrespective of origin, one of the major consequences is a decline over time in dietary quality and diversity and an increase in over‐nutrition or obesity (Guendelman et al., ; Sanou et al., ; Tarraf et al., ). Similar findings have been reported from a sub‐set of studies focused on the experience of refugee populations (Hadley et al., , 2010; Dharod et al., ; Nunnery and Dharod, ).…”