Dietary tribulations of Portuguese émigré consumers in a northeast U.S. Portuguese neighborhood: A qualitative investigation
Presentation Type
Abstract
Faculty Advisor
Charles Feldman
Access Type
Event
Start Date
25-4-2025 10:30 AM
End Date
25-4-2025 11:29 AM
Description
This investigation adds new context and nutritional understandings to the existing body of literature as it assesses the uniqueness of the contemporary Portuguese-American dietary situation: the socio-cultural eating practices, environmental influences, and the consequent nutritional outcomes. The objective is to investigate the dietary changes experienced by Portuguese-American immigrants post-migration making them susceptible to chronic diseases. An in-depth interview guide was developed from validated acculturation instruments exploring dietary behaviors before and after migration. Participants were recruited and interviewed at 4 retail sites selected to reflect a generally balanced perspective of purposefully selected consumers in a prominent Northeast US Portuguese neighborhood. Transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed based on recognized protocols to provide transparency and rigor, whereby codes were generated and triangulated among the 3 investigating researchers. The setting included a traditional Portuguese restaurant, a Portuguese grocery, a fish market and a neighborhood gym in a culturally significant and commercial Portuguese hub in Northern New Jersey, US. Ten Portuguese émigrés were comprehensively interviewed with follow up in situ. Four themes were inductively culled from the literature: Perceptions of Nutritional Knowledge; Environmental Isolation; Contemporary Stress; and Developing Unhealthy Eating Patterns: Temptations, Acknowledgement and Struggles. The investigated participants were aware of their nutritional environment, but nutritional knowledge alone was not sufficient to promote healthy eating practices for the Portuguese émigrés of this study. Environmental changes are needed to mitigate feelings of isolation, stress and other contemporary pressures that could lead to unhealthy dietary practices and thus the potential onset of chronic diseases.
Dietary tribulations of Portuguese émigré consumers in a northeast U.S. Portuguese neighborhood: A qualitative investigation
This investigation adds new context and nutritional understandings to the existing body of literature as it assesses the uniqueness of the contemporary Portuguese-American dietary situation: the socio-cultural eating practices, environmental influences, and the consequent nutritional outcomes. The objective is to investigate the dietary changes experienced by Portuguese-American immigrants post-migration making them susceptible to chronic diseases. An in-depth interview guide was developed from validated acculturation instruments exploring dietary behaviors before and after migration. Participants were recruited and interviewed at 4 retail sites selected to reflect a generally balanced perspective of purposefully selected consumers in a prominent Northeast US Portuguese neighborhood. Transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed based on recognized protocols to provide transparency and rigor, whereby codes were generated and triangulated among the 3 investigating researchers. The setting included a traditional Portuguese restaurant, a Portuguese grocery, a fish market and a neighborhood gym in a culturally significant and commercial Portuguese hub in Northern New Jersey, US. Ten Portuguese émigrés were comprehensively interviewed with follow up in situ. Four themes were inductively culled from the literature: Perceptions of Nutritional Knowledge; Environmental Isolation; Contemporary Stress; and Developing Unhealthy Eating Patterns: Temptations, Acknowledgement and Struggles. The investigated participants were aware of their nutritional environment, but nutritional knowledge alone was not sufficient to promote healthy eating practices for the Portuguese émigrés of this study. Environmental changes are needed to mitigate feelings of isolation, stress and other contemporary pressures that could lead to unhealthy dietary practices and thus the potential onset of chronic diseases.
Comments
Poster presentation at the 2025 Student Research Symposium.