By: Churan Chang, dietetic student-volunteer University of British Columbia, reviewed by Lyndsay Hall, Registered Dietitian and the JM Nutrition Team
A Culturally-Inclusive Approach to Healthy Eating: Introduction
A culturally-inclusive approach to healthy eating is something that cannot be overlooked in a culturally diverse country such as Canada. For this reason we decided to explore the subject in some detail.
When we hear the words healthy eating, it is easy to picture a certain kind of plate: a colourful salad, whole-grain toast, grilled chicken, or perhaps a Mediterranean-style meal.
But what about a bowl of congee in the morning? Dal and rice for dinner? Or a bowl of bibimbap?
Do these foods need to be changed before they can fit into a healthy diet?
There is another way we can approach this question. Instead of looking at a familiar meal and immediately asking, “What should I remove or replace?”, we can start by asking, “What is already here, and what could I add?”
This small shift matters because food is about much more than nutrients.
Our food choices are shaped by taste, affordability, availability, family, religion, social environments, cultural norms and traditions (Jayasinghe et al., 2025; Monterrosa et al., 2020).
Related: Factors that affect food choices
The ways we prepare, share and eat food can also be passed between generations, making food an important part of cultural identity and everyday life (Jayasinghe et al., 2025; Reddy & van Dam, 2020).
Healthy eating, then, does not necessarily need to mean eating less like ourselves.
Food Can Mean More Than What Is on the Nutrition Label
A bowl of food can carry much more than carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. It can be the breakfast your grandparents made, a dish that only appears during a holiday, or simply the food that tastes like home.
Food can also be closely connected to family, identity and belonging.
Cultural foods often appear at celebrations and social gatherings, while the ways we prepare and eat them can help maintain a connection to cultural identity and traditions (Reddy & van Dam, 2020).
More broadly, cultural food practices encompass not only the foods themselves, but also the traditions, rituals, values and social norms surrounding how food is prepared, shared and eaten (Jayasinghe et al., 2025; Monterrosa et al., 2020).
That makes nutrition advice a little more complicated than simply identifying which foods contain the most nutrients.
Replacing a culturally familiar food may look like a straightforward nutritional swap on paper, but food does not exist only on paper. If a recommendation does not fit someone’s family, preferences, traditions or everyday life, we may be overlooking an important part of eating (Khanna, 2021; Reddy & van Dam, 2020).
Before We “Fix” a Traditional Meal, What Does It Already Offer?
Traditional foods are sometimes discussed as though they need to be modified before they can become part of a healthy diet. Yet traditional cultural food practices may already contain many nutritious ingredients.
In Canadian dietary data, adults from six racial and ethnic minority groups had higher average diet-quality scores and lower intakes of ultra-processed foods than white adults in 2015, suggesting that some health-promoting aspects of traditional food practices may be retained (Olstad et al., 2023).
This does not mean that every traditional food is automatically nutritious, or that one cultural diet is better than another. It does suggest that we should be careful about assuming that eating “healthier” requires moving away from cultural foods.
Incorporating culture-specific information into dietary recommendations and considering broader sociocultural influences may help make nutrition interventions more relevant to the people they are intended to support (Khanna, 2021; Monterrosa et al., 2020).
So, what might this look like with foods we actually eat?
A Bowl of Congee Doesn’t Have to Stop Being Congee
Congee is a good example because it can be incredibly simple: sometimes it really is just rice cooked with lots of water. But that simplicity also makes it easy to build around.
If we look at a plain bowl and think only, “white rice is a refined carbohydrate,” our instinct might be to replace it altogether. But why?
We could build around the congee instead. Depending on the meal, an egg, tofu, fish or shredded chicken could add protein, while vegetables could contribute additional fibre and variety.
And many people already eat congee this way. There is no single “correct” bowl; preparations and accompaniments vary between regions and families.
None of these additions are about making congee “good.” The bowl can still taste and feel like congee.
Dal Doesn’t Need to Lose Its Rice
We can apply the same thinking to dal and rice.
Lentils are already a source of plant-based protein and fibre, so it is worth recognizing what the dal is bringing to the table before deciding that the rice needs to be reduced or replaced (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, n.d.).
From there, we can look at the rest of the meal. Is there already a vegetable dish? If not, perhaps adding a sabzi would make sense. Depending on the meal and the person, yogurt or raita might fit naturally too.
The result does not need to be a special “healthy dal bowl” that barely resembles what someone would normally eat. It can simply be dal and rice, with additions that make sense for that person.
And Sometimes, Maybe We Don’t Need to Add Much at All
Bibimbap is useful for a slightly different reason.
A bowl of bibimbap may already contain rice, several vegetables and a protein source such as egg or meat (Grant, 2025). Rather than assuming that every meal needs nutritional intervention, we can first recognize the variety that is already there.
“Add, don’t subtract” isn’t supposed to become another nutrition rule. Sometimes we may look at a meal and realize there isn’t anything we need to add at all.
One Culture Doesn’t Have a Single Diet
There is another limitation worth acknowledging when we use examples like these.
There is no single “Chinese diet,” “Indian diet” or “Korean diet.”
Even within the same cultural group, food practices can vary with geography, religion, family traditions, socioeconomic circumstances, migration and individual preferences (Jayasinghe et al., 2025).
Food practices are also not static. People may incorporate foods from other cultures for reasons such as health, convenience and variety (Reddy & van Dam, 2020).
So congee, dal and bibimbap are not meant to represent three entire cultures. They are simply familiar examples that show how the same nutrition question can be applied to very different meals.
Ultimately, culture can help us understand someone’s relationship with food, but it shouldn’t be used to make assumptions about what’s on their plate.
The Mediterranean Diet Is a Pattern, Not a Passport
This same thinking can change how we talk about the Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean dietary pattern has been widely studied for its potential role in healthy aging and the prevention of non-communicable diseases (Srambikkal Vinesh et al., 2026). But following its underlying principles does not mean someone’s plate suddenly needs to look Mediterranean.
A recommendation to eat more vegetables could look like a Greek salad, but it could just as easily look like Chinese stir-fried greens, an Indian vegetable dish or Korean namul.
Legumes do not have to mean hummus. Dal counts too.
The ingredients, flavours and cooking methods can change while broader nutrition principles remain. Perhaps that is a more useful way to think about healthy dietary patterns: take the principles, not necessarily the menu.
Adding With a Purpose
What we add should have a purpose, and that purpose will look different from person to person.
Someone who eats relatively little fibre may benefit from finding culturally familiar ways to include more vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, seeds or whole grains (HealthLink BC, 2025a). Someone who struggles to meet their protein needs might instead look for places where protein-rich foods fit naturally into their meals (HealthLink BC, 2025b).
And sometimes reducing or replacing a food may still be appropriate, particularly when individual health needs call for it. “Add, don’t subtract” is not a rule against changing foods; it is a reminder that removal does not always have to be our starting point.
Healthy Eating Can Still Taste Like Home
Food sits at the intersection of nutrition, culture, identity and everyday life (Jayasinghe et al., 2025; Monterrosa et al., 2020; Reddy & van Dam, 2020).
Culturally relevant approaches therefore deserve a place in nutrition recommendations rather than treating culture as something that gets in the way of healthy eating (Khanna, 2021; Monterrosa et al., 2020).
Maybe healthy eating does not always need to begin with giving something up.
Before swapping the rice, changing the recipe or replacing a dish altogether, we can pause and look at the meal that is already there:
- What does it already offer?
- What might be missing?
- What could we add?
Because sometimes eating well isn’t about making a traditional meal look more like somebody else’s idea of healthy food.
Sometimes it is about making the food we already love work for us.
Conclusion
Should you feel you require personalized nutritional sessions and support for culturally inclusive approach to healthy eating or a related matter, book a free consultation or contact us for an appointment. As always if you have comments or questions, we encourage you to let us know.
References
Grant, A. (2025, December 11). Korean mixed rice bowl with vegetables and egg: A tabletop stylist’s guide to bibimbap. MALACASA. MALACASA article
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (2026). Lentils. The Nutrition Source. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/food-features/lentils/
HealthLink BC. (2025, March 17). Fibre and your health. Government of British Columbia.
HealthLink BC. (2025, July 9). Protein and your health. Government of British Columbia.
Jayasinghe, S., Byrne, N. M., & Hills, A. P. (2025). Cultural influences on dietary choices. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2025.02.003
Reddy, G., & van Dam, R. M. (2020). Food, culture, and identity in multicultural societies: Insights from Singapore. Appetite, 149, 104633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104633
Khanna, S. K. (2021). Cultural influences on food: Dietary and health implications. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 60(6), 633–635. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2021.1999153
Monterrosa, E. C., Frongillo, E. A., Drewnowski, A., de Pee, S., & Vandevijvere, S. (2020). Sociocultural influences on food choices and implications for sustainable healthy diets. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 41(Suppl. 2), 59S–73S. https://doi.org/10.1177/0379572120975874
Olstad, D. L., Nejatinamini, S., Blanchet, R., Moubarac, J.-C., Polsky, J., Vanderlee, L., Livingstone, K. M., & Hosseini Pozveh, S. (2023). Protecting traditional cultural food practices: Trends in diet quality and intake of ultra-processed foods by Indigenous status and race/ethnicity among a nationally representative sample of adults in Canada. SSM – Population Health, 23, 101464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101464
Srambikkal Vinesh, D., Syed Altaf, R. R., Mohan, A., Palani, N., Mendonce, K. C., Selvan, S., Surya, P., & Rajadesingu, S. (2026). The Mediterranean diet as a metabolic strategy for healthy aging and non-communicable disease prevention. The Journal of Nutritional Physiology.
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About Author:
Lyndsay Hall is a Toronto-area and Mississauga dietitian who provides personalized nutritional support for weight loss, digestive health, chronic disease, meal planning for various cuisines and more. Lyndsay is registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario.
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