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Changing Food Habits in a South IndianHindu Brahmin Community: A Case ofTransitioning Gender Roles and FamilyDynamicsMeena Mahadevana, Dorothy Blairb & Emily Rose Rainesa

a Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Montclair StateUniversity, Montclair, New Jersey, USAb Department of Nutritional Sciences, Pennsylvania State University,University Park, Pennsylvania, USAPublished online: 30 Oct 2014.

To cite this article: Meena Mahadevan, Dorothy Blair & Emily Rose Raines (2014) Changing FoodHabits in a South Indian Hindu Brahmin Community: A Case of Transitioning Gender Roles and FamilyDynamics, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 53:6, 596-617, DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2014.891993

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Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 53:596–617, 2014Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0367-0244 print/1543-5237 onlineDOI: 10.1080/03670244.2014.891993

Changing Food Habits in a South Indian HinduBrahmin Community: A Case of Transitioning

Gender Roles and Family Dynamics

MEENA MAHADEVANDepartment of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Montclair State University,

Montclair, New Jersey, USA

DOROTHY BLAIRDepartment of Nutritional Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park,

Pennsylvania, USA

EMILY ROSE RAINESDepartment of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Montclair State University,

Montclair, New Jersey, USA

This study was conducted to explore the perceptions of 20 SouthIndian Hindu Brahmin women on the factors influencing theirfood habits upon immigrating to America. The competing demandsof juggling a new career and managing their family’s nutritionalneeds at the same time, all without the support of extended familymembers, played an important role in steering these women awayfrom cooking traditional healthy meals, and resorting to fast foodsinstead. Intervention strategies should be directed toward improv-ing the barriers to eating healthy that were specifically identifiedwithin the confines of shifting gender roles and limited familysupport networks.

KEYWORDS Brahmin, family, gender, Hindu, South Indian

Dietary acculturation, the process by which members of a community adoptthe food habits and consumption patterns of their new environment, hasbeen measured in a variety of immigrant groups (Satia-Abouta et al. 2002).The Asian Indian population in the United States has nearly doubled in less

Address correspondence to Meena Mahadevan, Department of Health and NutritionSciences, Montclair State University, 4173 University Hall, 1 Normal Ave., Montclair, NJ 07043,USA. E-mail: mahadevanm@mail.montclair.edu

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Changing Food Habits among South Indian Hindu Brahmins 597

than a decade, making it one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in thenation (Hoeffel et al. 2010). Shifts in the food habits of this group howevercan be difficult to measure because their traditional food preparation andrelated rituals are not homogenous. They vary depending upon the regionof origin, form of religion practiced, and the caste or sub-caste that onebelongs to. Hinduism is the predominant religion among Indians, and asmany as 80% of Indians are Hindus (Bajpai 2003). According to recent polls,there are approximately 1.5 million Hindus in the United States today, andthey make up 0.5% of the total population (Pew Research Center 2012). Theyinclude a diverse group of individuals, from highly educated professionalssuch as academicians, physicians and engineers to business owners, andblue-collar workers.

Within the four-tiered Hindu caste system, the Brahmins were knownto occupy the highest position in traditional society (Blunt 1969). The foodhabits of a Brahmin, including the use of specific commodities and the man-ner in which they are consumed, are dictated by a set of principles that arerooted in the ancient belief of ahimsa or non-injury or non-violence to livingbeings (Kilara 1992). For example, while the Kshatriyas (the warrior caste)believe that eating meat is symbolic of strength and vigor, the practice ofeating meats, especially beef and beef products, is vehemently condemned,and prohibited for consumption among the Brahmins. Brahmins often useterms such as sattvic, tamasik, and rajasik to ascertain if a food is fit forconsumption. For example, foods such as parched grains (puffed rice, riceflakes), fruit and most vegetables are considered sattvik or pure and con-ducive to health and spiritual well being. By contrast, rajasik and tamasikfoods such as meats, mushrooms, fried and spicy foods, and pungent rootcrops including onions and garlic, symbolize masculinity, power and aggres-siveness. Such foods are therefore prohibited for the Brahmin community(Roy 1954). An important distinction between the cuisines of Brahmins fromsome of the southern states of India and the rest of the country lies in theproscription for the consumption of animal proteins such as most meats, fish,and eggs. Unlike Brahmins from the northern, eastern, and western regionswho may include fish and eggs in their diet, South Indian Brahmins, espe-cially those from the states of Tamilnadu and Karnataka, are generally knownto be more devout lacto-vegetarians. They consume milk and milk productsbut categorically avoid eggs and all meats including fish (Sen 2004).

In recent years, there have been significant changes in how much andwhat kinds of meats are consumed in America. As many as 3% of Americanstoday identify as vegetarians and follow some version of a plant-based diet(Fraser 2009). Concern for the ethics of animal slaughter and the negativeimpact of meat consumption on personal health and the environment haveemerged as the chief motivations for vegetarianism. Other factors such aslack of social support, family pressures to eat meat, health concerns relatedto improper nutrition, missing the taste of meat, low availability of a wider

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range of vegetarian food products, lack of know-how to prepare vegetar-ian dishes, and moving into a new environment where meat eating is theaccepted norm, have all been cited as barriers that most commonly causedpeople to abandon vegetarianism (Ruby 2012). Given the cultural and reli-gious dietary proscription, especially for consuming eggs and meat, it seemsreasonable to assume that it would be especially difficult for South IndianBrahmin immigrants to shift from a traditional vegetarian diet composed ofwhole grain cereals, pulses, vegetables and fruits to a Western-style diet. TheWestern-style diet, also called the standard American diet (SAD), is character-ized by high intakes of red meat, refined grains, high-fat dairy products, andother high-calorie and processed foods including desserts and sugary bever-ages (Odermatt 2011). While there are no official estimates on the numberof Brahmin immigrants in the United States, and the changes in their foodchoices in particular, dietary acculturation studies involving Asian IndianHindus in general show that over time, a vast majority of them graduallytransitioned from eating a predominantly plant-based diet to adopting certainelements of the Western-style diet upon immigration to America (Gupta 1975;Karim et al. 1986; Patel and Bhopal 2004; Raj et al. 1999). The extent of thesemodifications was dependent on several factors including their living situa-tion and the extent of solidarity with other members of their own community.

Examining shifts in traditional gender roles and responsibilities andchanges to the family structures has proven to be another useful lens forunderstanding how an individual or an entire family’s eating habits maychange upon immigration. In today’s Indian society for example, despitethe fact that work and power now are more equally distributed than ever,distinct roles for men and women continue to exist in the nation. Womenare largely expected to be homemakers and ensure that their children andfamilies are adequately cared for while men are in charge of being the pri-mary providers, and representing the family to the outside world (Bajpai2003). The social, economic, political, and religious changes that accompanythe processes of immigration and assimilation can have a profound impacton these expected and valued norms and behaviors (Tummala-Narra 2004).Although the pressures to retain traditional roles and identities may remainin their home country, the women may now be exposed to multiple oppor-tunities that were previously unavailable to them. As they take advantage ofthese opportunities, develop their careers, and gain much more autonomyand power, their roles within the family as the main nurturers and cooksmay subsequently change. This is found to be especially true if they receivelimited reinforcement of traditional roles from the larger host community(Nathawat and Mathur 1993). Additional factors such as an increased work-load, stress, and the time spent away from home may dramatically reducethe amount of time a woman has available to spend on preparing traditionalfoods and dishes, and resorting to feeding her family meals that consist offast and convenience-style foods instead (Bauer et al. 2012).

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Changing Food Habits among South Indian Hindu Brahmins 599

A shift from a traditional diet featuring low-fat, high-fiber foods to onecharacterized by higher-fat animal protein, low fiber, and high levels of sat-urated fat has been established as a major factor in triggering diseases suchas obesity, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), and heart dis-ease among several groups including Asian Indian immigrants in the UnitedStates (Rajeshwari et al. 2005). There is a need for culturally relevant inter-ventions that can help this community to make healthier food choices, andreverse the trend of chronic disease risks among them. But first, programplanners need empirically grounded data that highlights the various contex-tual factors leading to changing food habits among them. While most dietaryacculturation studies have helped to quantify changes in food habits amongAsian Indians in general, the process by which these changes occur, espe-cially in relation to shifts in traditional gender roles and family dynamics,has not been clearly demarcated within the South Indian Brahmin commu-nity in particular. To our knowledge, there is no published data examiningchanging food habits under the aforementioned conditions in this subgroup.This study was therefore undertaken to expand our theoretical and empiri-cal understanding of how gender role affiliations and family dynamics mightbe influencing the traditional food preparation and consumption habits ofthis community. A better understanding and recognition of how the femalemembers of a South Indian Brahmin family balance the traditional role ofbeing a nurturer and primary food preparer with their professional careers,the impact of these competing demands on their ability to retain Brahmindietary rules, all within the constraints of changing family structures, pro-cesses, and norms, has the potential to help the entire community achievebetter overall nutritional health.

METHODS

Participants

This study was conducted in State College, PA. The sizeable enclave ofthe Hindu population in this town, and the similarity in cultural disposi-tion of State College to other university towns made it an ideal setting forthis research project (Schlow 1995). We hoped that the themes developed inthis study can be tested in a similar setting, and transferred to predict andexplain the process of dietary acculturation for South Indian Hindu Brahminsin similar situations. Participants were selected using a combination of snow-ball and theoretical sampling techniques. The initial participants were thefriends and acquaintances of the lead researcher. Additional individuals weretraced through social contacts between these initial participants. An essen-tial element of the theoretical sampling strategy involved keeping an eyeon the range of experiences that were being studied, and to identify any

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obvious gaps. The objective was to optimize the probability of describingthe full range of the phenomenon under investigation by selecting thosewho presented a variety of different situations. Additional participants wererecruited depending on if and where more data was needed. As a result ofthis ongoing ‘stocktaking exercise’ early on, it was possible to identify gapsin the information generated. When additional interviews generated no morenew information, the sampling was determined to be ‘theoretically saturated’(Strauss and Corbin 1990). This study was approved by the InstitutionalReview Board of the Pennsylvania State University (IRB # 01B1053). In keep-ing with the regulations for human subjects, each participant was asked tosign a consent form prior to data collection.

Data Collection

Data was collected using a semi-structured interview guide. All the inter-views were conducted in English since the participants were fluent in thelanguage. Each interview lasted 60–90 minutes, and was audiotaped with theparticipant’s permission. In order to keep participants focused on the areas ofinterest, questions of three types were used. These included descriptive (e.g.,what does traditional eating mean to you?), structural (e.g., what do you doto maintain your traditional eating habits here?), and contrast questions (e.g.,How do the rules of cooking traditional South Indian meals apply here inAmerica?) (table 1). Such questions allowed each individual to describe theunique set of factors that shaped her food habits (Spradley 1979). While the

TABLE 1 Semi-Structured Interview Guide

1. What does “eating traditional” mean to you?2. How would you define the “South Indian Brahmin” traditions of eating? How are they

different from other non-Brahmin food traditions? How are they different from otherBrahmin food traditions?

3. Describe your general eating patterns before coming to America?4. Since you’ve arrived to America, how have your food habits changed? What do you

think the reasons for these changes are?5. Earlier, you talked about some South Indian Brahmin food traditions. What do you do to

maintain your food traditions here?6. Now that you are here, how do some of those rules regarding eating this or not eating

that apply here? Be specific.7. What are some things that help you maintain your food traditions in America?8. What are some things that present as obstacles?9. Let’s suppose that you want to retain your traditional eating habits here. When you try to

do that, what helps you the most?10. What would help you to maintain your traditions?11. Suppose we were developing a program for folks like you to help you retain your food

traditions, what kinds of information would be useful to you?12. The goal of our discussion here is also to find out how we can help you have better

nutrition and health. Is there anything that you would like to know?

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Changing Food Habits among South Indian Hindu Brahmins 601

acculturation level of the participants was not formally assessed, in order toestablish a level of consistency in their experiences, only participants whohad been living in the United States for approximately 5 years or more wereselected. A 5-year resident inclusion criterion was chosen because severaldietary acculturation studies have shown significant differences in level ofacculturation between migrants who had lived in the US for less than 5 yearsand 5 years and over. It is estimated that a minimum of five years may beneeded to ensure that an individual has had sufficient time to establish eat-ing habits that reflect adjustment to food availability in the new host country(Delavari et al. 2013).

Data Analysis

The interview transcripts were analyzed using content analysis procedures.A codebook was first developed integrating themes emerging from the partic-ipants’ own words, and themes based on the dietary acculturation literature.The final set of codes was assigned to segments of the text in a word doc-ument, and to generate the themes. One of the steps of the coding processinvolved comparing different people (such as their views, situations, actions,accounts, and experiences), comparing data from the same individuals acrossthe interviews, and comparing previously analyzed data with an emergingcategory (Tesch 1990). This process generated a parsimonious set of themesthat explained the dynamic and complex processes of changing food habitsamong the participants of this study as they were more grounded in theirown experiences.

Reliability and Validity

In order to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings (Bogdan and Biklen1982), the first (lead researcher) and second authors independently analyzedthe transcripts, and met frequently to cross check their interpretations of thedata. They each made a note of the regularities, patterns, and explanations inthe transcripts, and came to a shared conclusion on the intended and impliedmeaning of the participants’ words. During these discussions, any presump-tions that the lead researcher, as a result of her own South Indian HinduBrahmin background, had regarding the study population were confrontedwith and worked through with the second author. The second author, whoalso served as the lead researcher’s thesis adviser and mentor, and the thirdauthor, a graduate assistant who helped with assigning codes to the tran-scripts identify themselves as Caucasian females of U.S. nationality. The goalwas to gain new perspectives and insights with as little bias or emotionalinvolvement as possible. Thus, a willingness on the researchers’ parts todiscard preconceived notions that conflicted with the data, and a desire to

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represent the multiple views of the research participants in an honest andthorough manner helped this research remain free of personal subjectivity.

RESULTS

The final sample consisted of 20 South Indian Brahmin women with agesranging from 25–36 years of age. The average age was 30.7 years (SD =3.3). They had all been living in the US for a time ranging from 5.5 years to19 years (Mean = 10.8 years, SD = 3.9). All the women were married, had atleast one child, and were working either full-time (62%) or part-time (38%).Most (95%) had a college degree, and three women held an advanced degree(MS, MA, and MBA). The majority (95%) lived in a nuclear family system withtheir husbands and children. At the time of the interview, only one partici-pant reported having her elderly in-laws live in her home. Of the 20 women,7 reported following a strict lacto-vegetarian diet even after immigration (adiet which excluded eggs and all meats); the remaining 13 admitted to eatingeggs frequently, as well as fish and poultry “on rare occasions” upon immi-gration (information on the exact or approximate time during which thesedietary inclusions were made was not collected). However, all 13 reportedcontinuing to avoid pork, beef, and related products.

Table 2 provides a list of all the major emergent themes and sub-themes. In the sections below, we describe these themes and subthemes andinclude examples of actual quotations where relevant, in order to provide adescriptive reconstruction of the participants’ experiences.

Theme 1: Changing Roles, Norms and Expectations

This theme reflected the women’s perceptions on the shift in their roles andresponsibilities after moving to the United States. While some women dis-cussed these shifts in terms of expectations from their husbands or extendedfamily members, others talked about the differences in societal norms andexpectations for women between India and the United States. Some women

TABLE 2 Themes and Sub-Themes on Changing Food Habits (N = 20)

Themes Sub-themes

Changing roles, norms, and expectations 1. Family expectations2. Societal norms and expectations3. Self-Imposed expectations

Changing family dynamics 1. Family structure2. Family relationships and support

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also talked about their own expectations of themselves as homemakers,wives and mothers versus career women and economic providers.

FAMILY EXPECTATIONS

When the women moved from India, their role within the household seemedto have changed considerably, perhaps to accommodate the new economicand social reality in America. Nearly all of them talked about how they hadgone from being a supplemental source of their family’s income to that of an“equal and important economic provider” upon immigration. Some describedthis shift in terms of “a pressure to work,” and “family expectations”:

Back home, I never felt any pressure to work. Now, I get the pressure towork from my husband! (Participant 2, 28 years old)

These expectations appeared to compound the stress of immigration forsome of them:

Moving here is a big stress because of all the things you have to adjustto. Now that I have to juggle work and my responsibilities of cookingand cleaning at home, I feel more stressed! (Participant 18, 32 years old)

They complained that these shifts had imposed a “very difficult” and some-times an “impossible task” of balancing their multiple responsibilities aswives and mothers at home as well as professionals at the work place:

I have responsibilities towards my children’s food needs but at the sametime, I have to make sure that I keep my boss happy. So I feel it is animpossible task! (Participant 20, 34 years old)

Juggling these dual roles appeared to leave them with little time or energyto cook traditional South Indian meals. Trying to balance a career with man-aging their household made it more difficult to shop for and prepare food,thus altering the eating habits of the entire family:

It is easy to eat a North Indian meal, South Indian restaurants are lacking.So if I need to cook vegetarian South Indian meals, that takes a lot moreplanning and time. So we just end up eating North Indian food which Ifeel is more fattening. (Participant 7, 29 years old)

They discussed these alterations in terms of not being able to eat mealscooked from scratch, being forced to include more meat, processed, andconvenience foods in their daily diets, and not being able to include a varietyof fresh fruits and vegetables in their daily diets:

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I don’t have the help of servants or anybody. So we eat more fast foodsfrom outside, take-out, pizzas, etc. I buy packaged and frozen foodsbecause at least they last longer and don’t drain my money. (Participant8, 31 years old)

A few women detailed the various modifications they made to typicalAmerican foods in an attempt to make them resemble Indian food items:

I just cook what is easily available. I buy tortillas, add some spices tofrozen veggies and make a curry, or add spices to a can of lentil soupand I have dal! (Participant 10, 33 years old)

Several women expressed concerns over how these modifications ultimatelynot only led them to eat more unhealthy meals as a family, but also played animportant role in contributing to the increased risk of chronic diseases in theiroverall community. As illustrated by the quotes below, the increased depen-dence on convenient fast foods and frozen TV dinners appeared to exacer-bate the overall stress of trying to maintain their weight for some of them:

It probably explains why I’ve gained weight and developed type 2 dia-betes after moving here. I feel that these issues are impacting not just meand my family, but our entire community. (Participant 13, 26 years old)

SOCIETAL NORMS AND EXPECTATIONS

While some women discussed the shifts in their traditional roles in terms ofeconomic necessity and familial expectations, others talked about the vastlydifferent norms and expectations of women in the modern American society,and the resulting impact of these changing norms on the amount of timeavailable to them to cater to their family’s food needs. The quotes belowillustrate this point:

Women are expected to be equal partners in a marriage. It puts morepressure on you. But at the same time, if the norms expect you to beworking, then they should have the resources available to women likeus to deliver quality meals to our families! (Participant 9, 32 years old)

This society has different values as far as what and how much womenshould do. In this society, women are not just expected to be sitting athome cooking. Women are expected to be earning too. Do women inAmerica cook? Sure! But women also do other things here, not just spendhours in the kitchen cooking everything from scratch like my mother andgrandma did, as some women I know in India still do, and as womenhere did too I’m sure years ago. I’m talking general of course. In someAmerican families that may still be the case . . . that women cook a lot.But in general, that’s how it is . . . .women cook less here because they do

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Changing Food Habits among South Indian Hindu Brahmins 605

so much more, they balance a lot of responsibilities, inside and outsidethe home. (Participant 7, 31 years old)

Here too, like in the previous sub-theme, there were detailed mentions ofmodifications they had made to traditional recipes and cooking methods.In this case, these modifications appeared to have been made mainly toadapt to the shifts in the perceived societal norms and expectations of theirtraditional gender-affiliated roles and responsibilities:

So then because of that, because I am also working, like my husband,and like millions of other women here, I take the same short cuts thatI am sure the average American woman takes. I do “semi-homemade”cooking. I buy prepared stuff, and then either heat or just add SouthIndian spices to it if I feel we as a family could be eating somethingtraditional for dinner or during the weekend. It’s definitely not traditionalSouth Indian Brahmin food or the way my brothers and I ate growing upbut we’re here now so we adapt to the way things are expected here!(Participant 4, 30 years old)

I agree that we have to adapt to this society now. I buy some of thosefrozen entrees, and sometimes, we just eat them the way they are.Sometimes, I try to make that resemble South Indian by adding somesambhar (traditional stew) spices to it. Like for instance, I’ll buy someinstant rice, some frozen veggies in sauce, then add a little bit of ourspices to it. Or I buy one of those pre-made sambhar sauce mixes atWhole Foods, and add that to the rice mix . . . to make it resemble our tra-ditional sambhar rice. It is not the healthiest because all that extra sodiumin the sauce but what choice do I have? I have to adapt to the societyhere and be a multi-tasker if I need to. And that affects what I cook andhow I cook it, which in turn affects how much we eat traditionally ordon’t. It’s not complicated. (Participant 11, 25 years old)

SELF-IMPOSED EXPECTATIONS

During the course of the discussions, it became evident that the women’sbeliefs about their roles and responsibilities in the larger society and in theirown homes were also very much anchored in their own expectations ofthemselves. For instance, nearly all the women felt that taking on the respon-sibility of an equal economic provider had empowered them and given themmore control over their family’s decisions, particularly when it came to theirfood choices:

I am bringing in money too, and so I feel I am equal member in thefamily. I don’t have to be dependent on my husband. I can take care of

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myself. So I’m more in-charge even in deciding what my family shouldeat! (Participant 16, 30 years old)

Interestingly, even as they talked about feeling independent and liberated,and the importance of adapting and blending into the American culture,these women continued to feel responsible for maintaining the cultural tra-ditions for their families. Being a “good mother” and a “good wife,” andtaking the time to prepare a South Indian meal during the week or cele-brating religious holidays centered on traditional foods was a way to ensurethat their children, who were growing up in America, could still maintain aconnection with their cultural heritage:

I am ultimately responsible for our food stuff. As women, we are taughtthat from a very early age. I feel that in order to be a good mother andwife, I need to instill the value of our culture through home-cooked SouthIndian food. (Participant 15, 35 years old)

Theme 2: Changing Family Dynamics

The comments coded for this second major theme reflected how aspects ofthe family structure, their relationships with their husbands and children, andthe amount of support they received from these family members played anintegral role in the extent to which traditional food habits were retained orabandoned by them upon immigration.

FAMILY STRUCTURE

Most women described the typical extended family household in Indiaas being a stark contrast to their own present “nuclear” family system inAmerica:

Back home, it was me and my grandparents. Here, it’s just me and myimmediate family! (Participant 5, 30 years old)

The lack of extended family members that could help with daily choressuch as cooking, and in some cases, the know-how and guidance to pre-pare authentic meals, were all reported as being directly responsible for thedecline in the overall nutritional quality of their meals. The quotations belowillustrate this point:

My grandma, and mom shared all the kitchen responsibilities. But here,it’s just me in the kitchen. Indian cooking is very time consuming. So Itake short-cuts like buying prepared foods. (Participant 6, 33 years old)

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FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND SUPPORT

Several women made comparisons between the relationships that they hadwith members of their family while growing up in India, and the relationshipsthey presently had with their husbands and children in America. These com-parisons were discussed particularly in terms of their impact on their eatinghabits as a family. They felt that the traditional eating patterns in India wherefamilies sat down together to share a meal together helped nurture a closefamily bond, whereas the norms of the American culture promoted limitedfamily interaction. Some women went so far as to attribute their unhealthyeating habits to these factors:

Cooking and eating was always a family affair growing up. My sisters andI helped my mom make the meals. When you eat together, you eat betterbecause you focus on family and health not just getting full. That sense offamily does not exist in this society. Then it becomes mostly grab-and-gokind of convenient and fast food. (Participant 3, 27.7 years old)

A few women reflected upon the extent of support they received from theirfamilies to prepare traditional Indian meals. They attributed cooking tradi-tional Indian food less frequently to limited support or interest from theirchildren and husbands:

I feel that there has been shift in what we do but it’s been an unequal,and one-sided shift. If my husband was more supportive, then I wouldhave more energy to cook healthy South Indian food from scratch ratherthan eat fast food. But Indian men aren’t raised to cook for themselves.(Participant 1, 33.5 years old)

The following quotation expresses the women’s concerns that these factorswere directly responsible for the health problems that plagued them andtheir families:

If we eat more westernized food because it is the easiest and more con-venient, then not only are we losing our cultural values, but we are alsolosing our good health. (Participant 4, 29 years old)

Many women reminisced about how as little girls, they were expected andtaught to help their mothers with the chores involved in food preparation,such as chopping vegetables, arranging the table, etc. In contrast, they real-ized that their children, especially their daughters, were growing up in anenvironment where cooking for the husband or family may not be as muchof a focus. While they recognized that this was a function of raising childrenin a modern American society, they were concerned that this may also be an

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important contributing factor to the loss of traditional food habits in futuregenerations:

Growing up, I helped my mom around the house. But my children aregrowing up in a different world where it is not cool to help your mommake food. So I’m sure that my daughter’s reality is going to be abouttake-outs and eating out rather than cook South Indian food. (Participant6, 27 years old)

A few expressed concerns about the impact of this factor on their children’shealth:

My kids eat what is given to them at school. They eat KFC, McDonald’setc. We grew up as orthodox pure vegetarians and now my children eathamburgers. So their eating habits and health is following the pattern ofchildhood obesity, which is worrisome. (Participant 14, 32 years old)

DISCUSSION

Despite the limitations posed by the small sample size, the restriction of thesample to a small college town, the lack of generalizability of our findings toother urban samples, and the sole reliance on self-reported data, this studyrepresents an initial step in illuminating the process of changing food habitsamong South Indian Hindu Brahmin families living in State College, PA.The varying degrees to which changes in the conventional gender-expectedroles and responsibilities, differences in societal norms, and changes to theirfamily’s structure, dynamics, and relationships influenced the retention orabandonment of traditional food habits were highlighted by the emergingthemes.

Theme 1: Changing Roles, Norms, and Expectations

Most women talked about how their husbands expected them to be workingand contributing to the family’s income. Some felt that unlike in the Indiansociety, women in the modern American society were encouraged to becultivating a competitive career path in the work place, just like their malecounterparts. American women were expected to take on the dual role ofhaving a career as well as being the primary caretaker of their children’sand their family’s food-related needs. For a few however, the pressures oftaking on these dual roles, and the struggle to meet the competing needsof their professional and personal lives may in fact have been self-imposed.While limited research exists on family, societal, or self-imposed expectationson South Indian immigrant women, the findings of this study are similar to

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trends observed in research involving Asian immigrant groups in general.Bhalla (2008) for example, in recounting the shifts in role compromise andcorresponding responsibilities of South Asian women in the U.S., empha-sizes that even as the women start to develop their professional careers,they are expected by their family members to be equal partners in marriagehelping with income and bill-paying but also playing the traditional roleof a “typical Indian wife and mother who cooks, cleans, and cares for thefamily.” Even successful American businesswomen accustomed to Americanculture have been known to have difficulty balancing the expectations oftheir family and society with holding a career and completing the traditional“womanly household chores.” Despite family or hired help, the women com-pared the chores of grocery shopping, laundry, making lunches, and dressingthe kids to the stress of a second job (Walsh 2009). Regardless of the factthat both the father and the mother are working, Walsh asserts that societysuggests a majority of the child- and home-care duties are allocated to themother.

When a group of Korean immigrant women started to make their ownmoney and contribute to the family, they reported feeling more confidentand consequently, became less subservient to their husbands who they nolonger had to rely on financially (Lim 1997). The participants of the currentstudy used similar language to describe their own transitioning identity. Theyacknowledged that being able to work, being independent, and being able tocontribute financially to their family was both professionally and personallyliberating. The feelings of self-empowerment from having a successful careerhowever seemed to be accompanied by the need to fulfill the more tradi-tional role of cooking Indian meals for their families, perhaps due to a deepersense of responsibility, especially towards their children. A study involvingSouth Asian immigrant women in the process of establishing their businessof opening a beauty salon offering eyebrow threading services revealed asimilar trend (Hewamanne 2012). The women wanted a successful businessand become financially independent, but at the same time felt responsiblefor the household duties.

Regardless of the source of the expectations, the shift in traditional gen-der roles and responsibilities seemed to present some interesting challengesin terms of the demands placed on the women’s time, and in turn, the extentto which they prepared and served traditional or nontraditional foods. Nearlyall of them expressed frustration at the limited time and energy they had atthe end of the day, and not being able to do the necessary shopping andfood preparation required to cook South Indian meals from scratch. Theycomplained about being forced to eat the more easily available North Indian-style meals from Indian restaurants or adopt more westernized food habits ofeating convenient and fast foods which they believed ultimately negativelyimpacted their family’s health. Instead of preparing authentic recipes, theytalked about “compromising” by incorporating some nontraditional foods in

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their daily meals. This also translated to far less trips to the supermarket,eating out more frequently, and eating fast food or frozen TV dinners.

Passing down traditions through cooking and eating traditional SouthIndian meals was another particular concern brought up by several womenin our study. They acknowledged that with each incident of ordering in,eating out, or substituting fresh ingredients for more processed foods, therewas a risk of “watering down” of the culture. The shift in gender roles hadreportedly made it far more difficult to preserve cultural traditions. A fewexplained how they ensured that at least one South Indian dish was eateneach day or South Indian foods were prepared for religious holidays, all inan attempt to instill traditional and cultural values in their children. Thisadded another degree of accountability to these immigrant mothers; notonly did they expect themselves to provide economic support and preparehealthy foods for their family, but the future and propagation of culturewithin their family also seemed to depend on them. Research with undoc-umented Mexican immigrant families revealed a similar trend. When themothers began working and increased their job responsibilities, they hadless time to prepare traditional Mexican meals for their families. While themothers attempted to maintain the Mexican culture and tradition throughfood, their children continued to adapt to American culture and food habits,thus intensifying the burden of immigration stress on these families further(Bacallao and Smokowski 2007).

Theme 2: Changing Family Dynamics

A change in family dynamics upon immigration, particularly in the fam-ily structure, the women’s relationships with their husbands and children,and the extent of support they received from their family members wereall reported as playing an important role in the degree to which they wereable to prepare and consume South Indian meals. For example, nearly allthe women observed that their family structures in the United States werevastly different from what they experienced growing up in India. Theyreported growing up in an extended family system, consisting of severalmembers of the extended family including their grandparents, and some-times uncles, aunts, and cousins. The preparation of meals in India wasdescribed as a “family task,” with the female members of the family usuallyworking together, side by side in the kitchen, and preparing family meals.In stark contrast, their present family structure in America is a nuclear sys-tem consisting of their immediate family, namely their husbands, children,and occasionally, their own parents or in-laws. In reviewing the challengesof living in such a family structure, the women explained that without thiscultural emphasis on sharing the task of food preparation, and sometimes,without the guidance to prepare authentic meals, it was only inevitable thatthey resorted to using more processed ingredients such as pre-made sauces

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and soups instead of preparing them from scratch, and eating out, and eat-ing fast food and other convenient food options—as this required less time,work and preparation in the kitchen.

Such findings support the trends found in earlier studies involvingChinese and Taiwanese immigrants who adopted western food habits overtime. In households where the grandparents lived with the family, theyoften took on some of the household chores, reportedly making less workfor the mother. With the transition to a more nuclear system however, theentire responsibility for housework and cooking fell on the mother, leavingless time for food preparation, cleaning, and other tasks around the house(Rosenmoller et al. 2011; Sun 2008). An increase in the frequency of eat-ing out and incorporating more convenience foods in the daily diet werereported in these studies too, though specific details as to what types ofrestaurants or convenience foods or actual portion size were not documentedin these studies.

In discussing aspects of family dynamics and the impact on their eatinghabits, several women drew comparisons between the relationships they hadshared with their immediate and extended family members growing up inIndia, and the relationships they now had with their own children and hus-bands. This aspect was discussed particularly in relation to family mealtimes.Mealtimes in India were described in nostalgic terms, and as being a “fam-ily affair,” and a time of “sharing” and “bonding”. Conversely, eating ameal in America was described as a “matter of convenience,” and mainlya solitary act that depended on each person’s schedule. They expressedsadness and regret at the lack of bonding and cultural and familiar affir-mation that comes along with family mealtimes. Some women asserted thatthe lack of family mealtimes might be directly and primarily responsiblefor the “watering down of cultural values,” and perhaps even the overallpoor nutritional quality of their daily food choices. Research with Filipinoimmigrant families revealed a similar trend. As the family became busywith work and outside life to eat together, it compounded the acculturationstress placed upon the relationships not only between parent and child butalso between the husband and wife (Treas and Mezumdar 2002). For thewomen in our study as well, it affected their relationships with her hus-bands and children causing them to perhaps reconfigure a new identityfor themselves - one of expediency, and one that blends their ingrainedtraditional expectations with the temporal realities of a full time work-ing, shopping, child caring, modern, middle class South Indian-Americanwoman.

As the women juggled the increased responsibilities that came withbalancing their professional and personal lives, the type and amount of phys-ical, emotional, and social support they received from their family membersseemed to play an additional and an important role in influencing theirlifestyles and eating habits. Unlike their mothers who had had the support of

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the extended family system with everyday household chores, these womenfelt solely responsible for all the household chores including shopping, laun-dering, cleaning, and cooking. The lack of human support left them feelingeven more overwhelmed, with no immediate resolution in sight. Similarsentiments were expressed among Portuguese immigrant families to NorthAmerica (Morrison and James 2009). The women had the most difficult timebeing away from the extended family, leaving them with feeling isolated andoverwhelmed. The lack of support from their immediate family members alsomade it difficult for a mixed group of immigrant women in Canada to dealwith their increased responsibilities of working in addition to taking care oftheir families. The women in the Canadian study emphasized that the lackof support left them feeling “unsupported, lonely, isolated, and strugglingto do well with change”. They increasingly turned to what was more conve-nient with respect to time rather than single handedly go through the lengthypreparation process required in the preparation of traditional ingredients andrecipes (Koert et al. 2011).

Exacerbating the lack of extended family support in the current studywas the apparent lack of support from their husbands. Several womenechoed the sentiment that the shift in the traditional male and female rolesafter immigrating to America was “unequal” or “one-sided”. They expressedfrustration at how their husbands reportedly never entered the kitchen andknew particularly very little in regards to cooking. Research with Koreanimmigrants living in New York City showed similar findings. The womenreported that while their husbands expected and valued their wives’ financialcontributions, they still held them responsible for the household chores (Min2001). One couple detailed how they both worked long hours in their familybusiness. However upon returning home after work, the woman reportedcooking dinner, washing dishes, and cleaning the house while her husbandsat and read the newspaper or watched television. The demanding expec-tations of working and caring for the family, and not having the support oftheir husbands was a significant limitation to the amount of time that theseKorean women had to devote to preparing food, and traditional Korean-stylemeals in particular.

Vegetarianism is fast becoming an important phenomenon in this coun-try; one that is consistent with a growing body of research that touts thebenefits of plant-based diets in reducing chronic disease risks (Bazzanoet al. 2002). Recent polls indicate that approximately 7.3 million peoplein the United States today follow a vegetarian-based diet with 0.5 percentof these people identifying as vegans, and consume no animal products atall (Vegetarian Times 2008). The reasons for why people become or don’tremain vegetarians have been the focus of several empirical investigations.One of the most common barriers to vegetarianism, among both men andwomen, was craving the taste of meat followed by the lack of willingness

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Changing Food Habits among South Indian Hindu Brahmins 613

to make drastic changes to one’s eating habits, personal beliefs that meatis necessary for human survival or that vegetarianism is unhealthy or wastoo time-consuming, family pressure, and lack of sufficient knowledge aboutthe nutritional value of vegetarian diets (Lea and Worsley 2003). However,just as people report barriers, so too do people report several motivations.The factors that cause people to maintain vegetarianism include strong per-sonal convictions about the welfare of animals and the environment, beliefsthat a vegetarian diet is conducive to long-term weight loss, having culinaryknowledge and skills to prepare vegetarian dishes, easy availability of pre-pared vegetarian meals and other vegetarian food products in stores, and thepresence of a strong social network consisting of supportive family membersand friends (Barr and Chapman 2002).

South Indian Brahmins represent a group whose vegetarian dietary pref-erences may not only be the result of such personal beliefs but are alsoseeped in religious notions of balance, purity, and pollution. In a previousphase of this research involving a small group of South Indian Brahminfamilies from State College and surrounding areas in Pennsylvania, severalparticipants lamented that while many meat-free food options were available,most felt that these food items (e.g. baked goods made with eggs, soy-basedcondiments containing fish bones, and vegetable soups made with chickenbroth or stock) did not cater to the strict meat and egg-free dietary stricturesof the South Indian Brahmin community. Many also felt that the local grocerystores and Indian restaurants catered mostly to the food preferences of thelarger American society or the predominantly North Indian community. Therange of spices and other specialty vegetarian food items that characterizedthe unique South Indian Brahmin cuisine were reportedly not easily avail-able. They described strategies such as ordering online, driving up to biggercities in surrounding areas to obtain items that were not available locally,stocking up on these supplies during their trips to India, and preparing dishesin bulk portions and freezing for later use, as ways to adapt to the culturalmilieu of a nation that did not adequately represent the “unique” vegetarianfood traditions of South Indian Brahmins (Mahadevan and Blair 2009). Whilethe results of the study helped highlight this subgroup’s food acculturationexperience, the ease and rationale with which some families still managedto retain their traditional food habits, and the reasons why other familiesadopted more nontraditional, meat-based foods after decades of holding onto orthodox vegetarian dietary codes remained unclear. An understanding ofhow this group negotiates their food habits in a cultural environment thatmay not easily accommodate their unique dietary codes for vegetarianism isintegral to helping nutritionists develop a more precise plan that will moti-vate these individuals to continue incorporating plant-based foods in theirdiets, ultimately helping to reverse the trend of increased chronic diseaserisks among them.

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CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The emergent themes in the current study indicate that a change in foodhabits among South Indian Hindu Brahmins, including the shift from atraditional plant-based diet to certain elements of the Western-style diet,could be attributed to a shift in traditional gender roles and changes tothe family structure and dynamics. The shift in traditional gender rolesdeveloped in response to perceived family, societal, and self-imposedexpectations. The competing demands of having a career and managingtheir family’s nutritional needs, all without the support of family membersmay have played an important role in steering these women away fromcooking healthy traditional Indian meals, and resorting to convenience andfast foods instead. To our knowledge, previous research in this area has notaddressed these issues.

Program planners and health care practitioners need to be aware of thetrends presented in this study, and recognize the significant role of thesefactors in influencing the process of changing food habits in this community.Strategies for dietary interventions should be directed towards improving thebarriers to retaining traditional healthy eating patterns that were specificallyidentified within the confines of the shift in gender roles and changes tothe family support networks. For instance, the phenomenon of the lack ofsocial support, facilitation and interaction, especially during mealtimes, wasidentified as a strong theme contributing to changes in their food prepa-ration and consumption habits. These findings support proposals programsthat strengthen and facilitate the existing social support networks for SouthIndian immigrant families at risk for negative health outcomes. Educationalcomponents may be designed keeping in mind that in order to encour-age the women to cook, serve, and consume more healthy meals, theyneed resources, strategies, and solutions designed to help them balance theirwork and home lives more efficiently. Connecting them to community-basedorganizations consisting of support staff that are intimately familiar with thecustoms and traditions of South Indian Brahmin immigrants may be instru-mental in helping these individuals transform their mealtime experience fromjust “eating out of necessity” to restoring them to a more positive state ofmind and body, both for themselves and their families. During the educa-tional sessions, representatives from various entities that provide resourcesfor working mothers may be invited to speak, and help provide a more com-prehensive and supportive educational experience. Sessions that specificallyaddress family issues in the workplace including the art of juggling profes-sional and personal responsibilities for dual career couples, raising childrenin a new and foreign cultural environment, how to negotiate for flexiblework schedules or work-at-home options, family leave, money management,sound financial investing, and how to connect with online communities and

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engage in a dialogue with other women in their same situation may helpthese women feel more supported.

Other initiatives such as classes on a variety of topics including easyways to adapt nontraditional ingredients and recipes to more closely resem-ble healthier versions of traditional recipes, how to better adapt to a nuclearfamily system, how to better deal with professional, social and familial pres-sures, time management skills, ways to accommodate and compromise withthe food preferences and nutritional needs of their children, and ways toencourage and allow their husbands and children to be more involved inmenu planning and preparation may help motivate these women to attendto their own and the nutritional needs of their families better. Ultimately, anintervention that involves the entire family, and aims to build in more socialsupport networks can reverse the trend of increased risk to chronic diseasesamong this group.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the participants for their unhesitant cooper-ation and honesty in sharing their struggles. Without them, this manuscriptwould have been impossible.

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