After moving to the United States, immigrant groups trying to fit in tend to choose high calorie fatty foods in an attempt to appear more American, a new study finds. That's one reason why immigrants approach US levels of obesity within 15 years of moving to America.
The researchers also did an experiment that measured whether or not the threat of appearing un-American influenced respondents' food choices. After being questioned about their ability to speak English 75 percent of Asian-Americans identified a typical American food as their favorite. Only 25 percent of Asian-Americans who had not been asked if they spoke English did the same.
When their American identity was called into question during a follow-up study, Asian-American participants also tended to choose typical American dishes, such as hamburgers and cheese sandwiches. In that experiment, 55 Asian-Americans were asked to choose a meal from a local Asian or American restaurant. Some participants were told that only Americans could participate in the study. Those who chose the more typical Americanfareended up consuming an extra 182 calories, including 12 grams of fat and 7 grams of saturated fat (饱和脂肪).
"People who feel like they need to prove they belong to a culture will change their habits in an attempt to fit in," said Sauna Cheryan, an author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
"If immigrants and their children choose unhealthy American foods over healthier traditional foods across their lives, this process of fitting in could lead to poorer health." Cheryan added.
Social pressures, the study concluded, are at the heart of the problem. "In American society today, being American is associated with being white. Americans, who don't fit this image even if they were born here and speak English, feel that pressure to prove that they're American," said Cheryan.
