Keen-wah? Even white rice was new once, right?

“No, mom it’s pronounced keen-wah,” I explained to my mom as she showed me the newest addition to the dinner table, quinoa. Growing up in a Chinese-American household, my parents made an effort to make mealtimes a cultural event, incorporating many of the traditional foods they ate growing up in China. However, even with the most culturally traditional clientele, such as my parents, education and exposure to new nutritious foods can transform their food choices outside cultural boundaries. Multicultural families can be very open to changes to their diet staples.

My parents immigrated to the United States from China in the early 1960’s and were forced to adapt to an entirely new culture. They were able to learn English, earn graduate degrees and most essentially, adapt to the tastes of the American diet since back then, ethnic grocery stores were not as available as they are today. This did not happen quickly though. My dad stated that the first time he tried a slice of American-style pizza in New York City, he threw it up immediately. To my parents, Chinese food was more than a style of cuisine; it was home.

Growing up, I could always count on a heaping bowl of white rice to be set in front of each of us at dinner. Moving into older age, my dad found at his annual physical that his blood sugar and cholesterol levels were high. Right away my mom had us cut back on the amount of rice at each meal as well as implementing other dietary changes. One day an old friend who had gone to high school with my dad in China came over and brought a bag of his new favorite food, quinoa. He boasted about its delicious and slightly nutty flavor and how it cooks just about the same way as rice. Intrigued, my mom examined the nutrition facts of a serving of quinoa and compared it to a serving of white rice. She noticed that quinoa had much more protein and fiber than the white rice. Based on the nutrition benefits and the great taste, she was sold.

With some other adjustments to my dad’s diet and lifestyle, his blood sugar levels normalized as well as his cholesterol levels. My family continues to incorporate quinoa as well as brown rice at meals and has white rice very rarely. As surprising as it may seem that a very traditional Chinese household would switch from a staple ingredient to a completely new food, it was the nutrition education and exposure that truly made an impact. Thus, don’t be afraid to encourage others, no matter how culturally diverse, to try something new!