(Re)connection with cultural foods as an avenue towards eating disorder recovery for ethnic minority immigrants: a critical narrative analysis

Ethnic minority immigrants are at increased risk for experiencing disordered eating due to discrimination, acculturative stress, and higher rates of food insecurity, while their cultural foods are demonized through dominant health discourses. Considering cultural foods may be tied to identity, belonging, and comfort, this study explored the role that cultural foods played in recovery for ethnic minority immigrants and examined how dominant discourses of health shaped these experiences. Narrative interviews were conducted with six ethnic minority immigrants who self-reported a history of disordered eating. Grounded in critical social constructionism, interview transcripts were analyzed using a holistic-content approach to narrative analysis (Lieblich, 1998). Across narratives, cultural foods were constructed as objects of shame/danger, sources of connection/identity/fulfillment, and sites of resistance/empowerment at different stages of participants' recovery journeys. These findings suggest that reconnection with cultural foodways may be a critical and overlooked component of recovery for ethnic minority immigrants.