Introduction
Food practices of many Indigenous peoples are strongly linked with their ways of interpreting and seeing the world. Altering these practices impinges on the way of life of some community members [
1]. Various ancestral practices have changed over the years, beginning with the European colonization of the Americas [
2]. As time passed, several factors have decreased the consumption of the communities’ ancestral foods, which are foods that belong to a specific region and to the gastronomic heritage of that region, given the value that they contribute in terms of both preparation and consumption. For this reason, ancestral foods require knowledge and generate cultural identity [
3,
4]. Determinants of the loss of ancestral foods include the exhaustion of natural resources, the replacement of native crops by commercial ones, and changes in farming practices. These determinants pose a risk to the food security of these communities [
5]. In Colombia, roughly 50.2% of Indigenous households have subsistence crops [
6].
Reports have shown that problems with food insecurity and the “double burden of malnutrition” (simultaneous presentation of undernutrition and overweight/obesity) are greater for Indigenous populations than for non-Indigenous populations [
7,
8]. In Colombia, 77% of Indigenous households are food insecure, compared with 52.3% of households in the general population [
6].
Furthermore, one age group that requires more attention during a critical life stage is children under 5 years of age, given that eating practices during the first years of life impact growth and development [
9]. It is well known that malnutrition hinders learning processes, weakens the immune system and increases the presence of infections [
10]. In Colombia, 29.6% of indigenous children under 5 years of age are stunted (low height for their age), compared to 10% of non-Indigenous children. Malnutrition among Colombian Indigenous children in this age group is 7.2%, compared to 3.0% for non-Indigenous children [
6].
Food practices have significantly changed for Indigenous groups in both lower- and higher-income countries [
11]. For instance, some Indigenous children in Canada have been found to consume fast food and processed foods at least once per week, and roughly half consume candy, desserts and packaged foods with high salt contents at least once per day [
12]. In the case of the Embera Indigenous community in Colombia, their ancestral practices such as hunting, fishing, and gathering have become unsustainable due to low productivity and socioeconomic conditions. This is reflected in deficiencies in folic acid (34.2%), calcium (93%), vitamin A (61.4%), and zinc (75.7%), as well as chronic malnutrition (68.9% of children under 10 years of age) [
13]. Meanwhile, other studies in northern Colombia reported that 13.9% of Arhuacos children were overweight and 8.8% were obese [
14]. In 2015, roughly 5% of Colombian Indigenous children under 5 years of age were obese [
6].
Actions to address these nutritional problems have had poor results in some countries with large Indigenous populations [
15]. A good deal of this problem is due to a lack of epidemiological indicators to better evaluate the situation [
16]. Added to this concern is a process of cultural disconnection that has occurred in some of the communities, in which practices that are foreign to the Indigenous culture are more highly valued than the knowledge of Elders, resulting in the partial or total replacement of food traditions [
1]. Given the reality of these communities, this situation suggests that an attempt should be made to complement ancestral diets with foods from other contexts but with nutritional value, and to consider some modern practices that facilitate their preparation.
One population experiencing problems related to changes in eating practices is the Inga community. This is one of 102 Indigenous populations that still exist in Colombia, and it represents 1.1% of the country’s Indigenous population [
17]. In 2018, there were 19,561 people who self-identified as belonging to the Inga community [
16], 62.4% of whom lived in the department of Putumayo, followed by Nariño (16.6%) and Cauca (4.4%) [
17].
Ever since Ingas arrived in Aponte, Nariño in 1700 AD, they have had difficulties defending their territory. Their territory was colonized in 1930, and since then “mestizaje” process have led to a weakening of cultural values (language, dress, food, thought, and spirituality). This brought about the appearance of money, the “tiendas” (small informal markets offering everyday consumer products), alcohol consumption, and even prostitution [
18]. In 2003, the Inga people began a process to strengthen their cultural identity and to eliminate elements that were foreign to their culture, which they believe have deteriorated the lives of the Inga. To address the negative effects of globalization and colonization and to be able to continue existing as an Indigenous people, they implemented the principle of “Living Well.” This is a strategy to preserve cultural uses and customs, strengthen Indigenous authorities, and reduce sources of contamination to protect the water and care for the plants and animals [
19].
Since the 1970s, several factors have affected the quality of the soil as well as routine “chagra” practices [
18] —a farming system that ensures Indigenous food security and represents their worldview [
20]. Farming difficulties have included indiscriminate deforestation for the extraction of wood, and since the 1970s, the presence of guerrilla and paramilitary groups. During the 1980s and 90s, the cultivation and trafficking of poppy was related with aerial spraying with glyphosate [
18], ordered by the Colombian government to combat illicit crops. And in 2015, a geological fault caused a crack that divided the territory, destroyed houses, and made it difficult to walk in the municipality [
18].
In addition, the arrival of “Western” foods (an expression used by the grandmothers to indicate foods that are not of Inga origin) was related with children’s preferences for foods sold in “tiendas” or received in children’s daycare centers. Most young Inga have abandoned agricultural activities and ancestral foods, looking for prestige when buying and consuming “Western” foods [
19]. With the passage of time, adults have happened to prefer “Western” food because of the speed and ease of cooking [
19]. All these factors have decreased food security for the Inga people.
Faced with this concern, one of the coinvestigators of this study, a member of the Inga people, expressed her interest in addressing the problems in her community. She joined the other researchers to explore changes in the food and nutrition of young Inga children. Therefore, the study herein was aimed at identifying the replacement of food practices among children under 5 years old based on conversations with grandmothers belonging to the Inga community in Aponte (Nariño, Colombia). It also explored the perception of health effects and the possibility of recovering ancestral food practices, in order to improve the community’s food security and the health of under 5-year-old children. This study is based on the grandmothers’ key role as knowledge-holders of their community and of their culture’s traditions, including their food practices.
Methods
A phenomenological qualitative study [
21] was carried out with mothers and grandmothers of children under 5 years of age, from the nine communities in the Inga Indigenous reservation in Aponte, Nariño, respecting intercultural agreements with the Inga people. The children’s current food practices were explored based on the self-reflection and knowledge of Inga grandmothers and mothers. The participants included 24 mothers from the nine communities in the Inga Indigenous reservation in Aponte, Nariño. The median age of the mothers was 29 years old (Q
25: 25 years, and Q
75: 35 years) and the median number of children was 2. Most of the mothers interviewed (46.15%) had incomplete secondary education. The occupation reported most frequently (76.92%) was homemaker.
In addition, 25 grandmothers were invited to participate, most of whom were grandmothers of those children. Their median age was 66 years old (Q25: 57 years old, and Q75: 75 years old), the median number of children was 4 and the median number of grandchildren was 5. Only 5 of the grandmothers had primary education, and the others had incomplete primary or did not have formal education.
The study sought the participation of at least one grandmother and one mother from each community. The snowball technique was used to identify participants [
22], beginning with some key participants on the reservation (mothers identified by the Inga researcher), and then intentionally including other women.
Free lists were used to identify changes in the foods that the mothers and grandmothers fed to their under 5-year-old children. This technique made it possible to obtain systematic data about a cultural domain by using a set of organized words, concepts, and phrases [
23]. A cultural domain is a knowledge shared by a social group, built in a tacit manner, which allows its members to interpret common experiences [
24]. To this end, the mothers were asked to make a list of the foods that they frequently fed to their under 5-year-old children, and the grandmothers were asked to list the foods that they typically fed to their children when they were raising them. The foods were recorded in the order mentioned. According to this technique, people refer to each element based on their familiarity with it and its relevance in their context. The free lists were administered in 10 min or less. Once the lists were obtained from all the participants, they were entered into a digital note block file and categorized. Anthropac 4.98 [
25] was used to process the data and to obtain the relevance of the responses.
After the data was categorized and processed, salience values were obtained for each free list (Table
1). Salience is understood as the level of importance in terms of presence and position, in this case, of one food with respect to the others [
26]. That is, the relevance of the foods given during childrearing, the frequency with which they were mentioned, and the position in which they were recorded were identified according to the cultural domain of the grandmothers and mothers, as expressed by the technique itself [
26]. In this case, a salience near 1 indicates that the food mentioned is most important, since it was reported by many people and was one of the top foods listed.
Table 1
Food that grandmothers fed to their children in their childrearing years, and that mothers fed to their under 5 years-old children. Results from free lists
Corn | 92 | 4.83 | 0.639 | Rice | 88.5 | 4.57 | 0.528 |
“Mote” (boiled grain) | 60 | 2.87 | 0.514 | Soups | 76.9 | 3.7 | 0.52 |
Calabaza (Cucurbita pepo) | 68 | 5.88 | 0.437 | Coffee | 42.3 | 3 | 0.341 |
Collard greens | 72 | 6.44 | 0.403 | “Coladas” (a hot thick drink) | 46.2 | 2.92 | 0.334 |
Soups | 56 | 7.07 | 0.304 | Bread | 34.6 | 2.67 | 0.28 |
“Arracacha” (Arracacia xanthorriza) | 56 | 7.36 | 0.301 | Eggs | 50 | 4.92 | 0.259 |
Beans | 48 | 6.58 | 0.261 | Tortilla | 34.6 | 3.89 | 0.23 |
Wheat | 40 | 5.9 | 0.255 | “Aguapanela” | 34.6 | 4.89 | 0.197 |
Cane sugar | 36 | 6.11 | 0.222 | Beans | 42.3 | 6.73 | 0.178 |
“Coladas” (a hot thick drink) | 44 | 7.82 | 0.214 | Peas | 30.8 | 6.38 | 0.13 |
Barley | 36 | 7.44 | 0.19 | Meat | 34.6 | 6.89 | 0.123 |
“Aguapanela” | 32 | 7 | 0.171 | Bananas | 15.4 | 3.25 | 0.116 |
Cow milk | 32 | 8.13 | 0.167 | Corn | 15.4 | 5.25 | 0.096 |
Fava beans | 28 | 7 | 0.157 | Cow milk | 11.5 | 2 | 0.092 |
Corn “envueltos” | 32 | 7.75 | 0.152 | Chicken | 19.2 | 5.2 | 0.091 |
Peas | 28 | 7.57 | 0.143 | Stew | 11.5 | 4 | 0.084 |
Flavored water | 36 | 8.67 | 0.139 | Potatoes | 26.9 | 8.43 | 0.078 |
Olloco | 32 | 9.5 | 0.138 | Lentils | 19.2 | 7 | 0.078 |
Tortilla | 20 | 5 | 0.138 | Oranges | 15.4 | 5 | 0.077 |
“Chicha” | 24 | 8.5 | 0.121 | Apples | 11.5 | 4 | 0.073 |
“Cuy” (Cavia porcellus) | 28 | 7.86 | 0.112 | “Guineo” (Musa paradisiaca) | 11.5 | 4.33 | 0.069 |
Sweet potato | 24 | 8.67 | 0.101 | Papaya (Carica papaya) | 7.7 | 3 | 0.051 |
To delve more deeply into the topic and provide an interpretation of the results of the free lists, 20 of the grandmothers were interviewed, given their knowledge about their community and its ancestral and cultural food traditions. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with those who filled out the lists and who wanted to be interviewed and easily expressed themselves. The interview guide explored the following four themes: (1) changes in food practices by children under 5 years old, (2) reasons for those changes, (3) perception of good health status of the children and (4) options for recovering ancestral food practices. These themes served as a priori categories of analysis. The phenomenological perspective [
21] was used to analyze the verbal contents of the Inga grandmothers with the aim of identifying the essential structures that give meaning to their perceptions, knowledge, and experiences. The interviews lasted from 20 to 45 min and each one was transcribed and categorized for analysis with the aid of the NVivo program [
27]. The information analyzed was verified by the researchers.
A psychologist with expertise in free lists and interviewing conducted these two techniques in the women’s homes. An Inga language translator from the community facilitated communication with non-bilingual grandmothers (Spanish and their Indigenous language). All participants gave their approval to participate and to record the interviews, through informed consent. Their anonymity was protected by assigning codes to the free lists and to the audio recordings of the interviews.
The study’s protocol was approved by the Universidad Industrial de Santander’s Ethics Committee, and it was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the Colombian legislation on research with humans.
Discussion
The grandmothers in this study expressed the need to return to planting crops and raising animals, which not only relates to food security but also to food sovereignty, as do garden projects that are being implemented in other Indigenous contexts [
28]. In this way, the value of Indigenous food and environmental systems is recognized as a way to reduce hunger problems, particularly among the children in these communities [
29]. The discussion of ancestral food practices refers to foods from locally available natural resources that are culturally accepted, as well as practices and the meanings that they entail [
30]. This is based on the principle of food practices that provide nutrients, which can better contribute to healthy conditions than industrial foods.
In terms of nutrition, the degree to which ancestral food practices are suitable is particularly important. The grandmothers’ social representations of consuming the natural foods that they had in the past reflect the importance of valuing the practices that are no longer present in the current generation, which they miss and wish to regain. In Colombia, ancestral products such as corn, potato, yuca, and barley are traditional foods that have been associated with less overweight among children and a lower risk of breast cancer [
31,
32]. Moreover, this study measured the body mass index of the children and mothers. The results indicate that 34.62% of the mothers were overweight and 11.54% were obese, whereas 7.69% of the children were overweight or obese. These findings show that mothers currently engage in less physical activity.
Moreover, this study illustrates how certain ancestral food practices by the Ingas have been gradually declining, which reflects what is occurring in most Indigenous communities in the Americas [
33]. This is characterized by the progressive substitution and termination of cultural practices, which have led to what some authors call ethnic and cultural genocide [
2]. The way in which communities relate to food and changes in the forms of production have explained these changes in food practices [
34]. The Inga grandmothers perceived the foods that were eaten in their day as healthier than what the mothers currently feed their under 5-year-old children.
In the case of the Inga people of Aponte, the recovery of ancestral food has many benefits. There is evidence that diets based on corn, beans, and pumpkin allowed the subsistence of Mesoamerican peoples [
35], which indicates that macronutrients (proteins and carbohydrates) and micronutrients (calcium, vitamin A and niacin) are sufficient to have an adequate diet [
36]. Undoubtedly, it is possible to improve this ancestral diet with foods rich in micronutrients (fruits and vegetables). This would be an additional benefit that would clearly improve health conditions. In regard to the ways of preparing food, since mothers prefer to devote less time and physical effort to culinary practices, any intervention to recover ancestral foods should include modern forms of cooking. The priority is to maintain the nutritional benefits and food security associated with ancestral foods.
Consuming the region’s traditional vegetables and cereals is less common now, according to the grandmothers. Nevertheless, the results of this study show that factors existed such as a lack of fruit, meat, and eggs in the days when the grandmothers were raising their children. These results differ from some studies that report the value of ancestral eating practices in Indigenous communities where there is a high consumption of fruits, vegetables, and animal protein [
37,
38]. In this study, the particular conditions of the Inga community involve different social, economic, and political problems that have existed since the 1970s [
18], which can explain this inconsistency.
The findings herein are consistent with Indigenous populations around the world incorporating in their diet high-energy foods that are high in salt and fat and low in fiber [
12,
39]. Access to these types of food in the Inga region is related with the introduction of rubber in the 1970s and poppy in the 1980s [
18]. The money that circulates from those activities has made it possible to acquire other food products from the “tiendas,” which in the past were not spaces belonging to this culture. The foods that are sold, and which are included in what some authors call “food technology,” or industrialized high energy density foods [
33], are attractive to the Indigenous population, and especially to children since they are novel and their flavors are different from local foods. This type of food is also attractive to mothers because it is easy to prepare and thereby reduces housework, while it also contributes to the replacement of traditional foods.
The findings suggest that these populations imitate “Western” patterns that they find attractive, which even gives them a sense of belonging in a context where Indigenous populations have historically lacked recognition and have experienced marginalization [
40]. Since some Indigenous peoples seek to look like workers or travelers who arrive from other regions, they eat what they see them consume. The results also explain the youth’s lack of interest in the land and their devaluation of the “chagra” farming system, and changes in the mothers’ activities. While mothers continue to raise children and care for their husbands, including engaging in activities related to food preparation, they now express disinterest in receiving advice and teachings from knowledgeable women in their community, and in continuing practices such as peeling, grinding, and log cooking. Since this provides more free time, they can perform other activities at home, or rest, or talk with others.
Older women in other Indigenous contexts in Latin America refer to the lack of interest in their knowledge and advice as devaluation, and thus, a lack of recognition of their ancestral knowledge [
41], even though women have historically been linked with both the preparation of food as well as the implementation of production and consumption strategies [
42]. In this sense, cultural knowledge about food needs to be transmitted from generation to generation, since this would make it possible to learn about and reinforce the community’s own knowledge and practices, and for that to be reflected in the foods that are fed to the children [
43].
The Inga’s consumption of foods that are not part of the Indigenous food tradition is consistent with findings by studies of non-Indigenous populations that have similar socioeconomic characteristics [
43]. Studies have found that for groups that have poor food environments, healthy options are not available and obtaining nutrient-dense foods is expensive [
44]. While the risk of malnutrition from deficits or excesses may be the same for the general population, the risk is higher in Indigenous communities due to poverty-related food insecurity, the availability of low-cost low-nutrition foods and a lack of resources for production [
45].
As has been documented in other Indigenous populations, the Inga grandmothers’ concept of “healthy foods” is associated with what is natural, what comes from the earth, while “non-healthy foods” are products that are produced by industrialization processes [
46]. Nevertheless, this is not always the case in Indigenous communities, since some have indicated that consuming industrialized foods is good because it reflects the financial ability to obtain them [
33], which reinforces the tendency to imitate “Western” patterns. In addition, according to the grandmothers, healthy foods are associated with what is natural and the presence of chemical substances in foods reduces their healthiness. They reported that ancestral crops have sometimes been fumigated with the glyphosate used to control illegal poppy crops, which has affected food practices in three ways: (1) they do not consume their crops for fear of contamination, (2) they consume what they plant in small quantities because they believe it is not good for their health, and (3) they plant fewer crops because they believe that they affect the quality of the soil. These factors have been described in the literature [
47,
48] and are consistent with the perception of the participants in the present study.
Given the situation described above, the community plants fewer crops and favors crops that generate more income. With the money they earn, they can pay to travel to other places, buy medicines, and make household improvements. Ancestral foods are replaced as a result, such as corn —a basic food for Indigenous cultures in most of the Americas, where some countries have seen notable decreases in consumption [
39]. For the Ingas, bread, rice, and pasta are widely present and compete with this age-old food. Thus, changes not only involve the types of food consumed and food practices, but also how the Indigenous communities have gone from being producers-consumers to being only consumers, which is characteristic of the West [
33]. This can be explained by globalization, which intrudes into these spaces and brings about both the marginalization of small-scale production as well as “indigenization” —a movement to revitalize Indigenous food practices in order to regain control over food and production practices that accord with their own culture [
2].
Together, all these findings suggest that the recovery of ancestral practices should consider what was healthy in the past without neglecting current healthy practices or the inevitable permeability of these communities to consuming “Western” products, given the close relationship that currently exists between the cultures. Furthermore, it should be recognized that the value of traditional food practices goes beyond simply consuming food, and that foods can be healthy or of little benefit. Ancestral means seeing the underlying symbolic content and how knowledge gives a community identity [
49].
Under this premise, strategies by government social programs need to be strengthened so that they actually take approaches that are both intercultural and intersectoral, and take into account social determinants such as culture and those that generate lags in these communities. This means striking a balance between “good nutrition” from a “Western” perspective and healthy eating based on ancestral knowledge.
Recovering knowledge and documenting ancestral practices by Indigenous communities could contribute to future food security and sustainability for these communities [
50], as well as to the subsistence of the population in general, at a time when food production is decreasing in some regions of the world, which poses a risk to the survival of our species [
42,
51]. The expected effect is to achieve autonomy to decide what food to produce, consume, and market. All actions that promote cultural strengths and the autonomy of communities will be positive [
52], as will those that recognize ancestral practices, including the expression of the knowledge that is held by the communities. These ancestral practices are worth knowing and should be protected, particularly since other cultures have lost contact with natural food sources, especially those with high incomes [
30]. In addition, public policies should promote and protect the health of these communities and strengthen ancestral knowledge so that there is a return to planting and traditional production practices, and to valuing the “chagra” farming system. This can be accomplished by relying primarily on the knowledgeable grandmothers, government technicians, and respected people in the community such as elders and community authorities [
18], as recommended by the community itself.
With regard to properly interpreting the findings, it is important to mention that the data included in this study corresponds only to what was reported by the grandmothers, as knowledge-bearers. It is known that among Indigenous people, the elders are the holders and transmitters of the knowledge of their ancestors. Specifically, the knowledge and experience of the grandmothers is linked to the development and growth of the children and the reproductive health of women [
53]. Since this is consistent with the approach of this study, which sought to recover ancestral food practices, reports from current mothers were not included. The inclusion of their knowledge and opinions after some years have passed will undoubtedly be key to better understanding ancestral practices and the process of acculturation.
Conclusions
The main finding of this study is that there is a tendency to forget some of the ancestral food practices of the Inga Indigenous people in Aponte. This includes exclusive breastfeeding and the consumption of corn and vegetables such as zucchini, collard greens, and “arracacha” (Arracacia xanthorriza), which have been replaced by the consumption of foods such as rice, pasta, and highly processed low-nutrition industrialized foods, along with increased salt consumption. Some of the reasons for the replacement of these practices are: the amount of time available to mothers for cooking, new food preferences on the part of children, and changes in the environment. The presence of poppy crops and the exploitation of wood have increased the circulation of money, thereby increasing buying power for high-energy low-nutrition foods. In addition, aerial spraying with glyphosate to eradicate poppy crops and landslides have had a geological impact, bringing an end to the cultivation of various crops on the community’s land.
Changes in the food practices of Inga mothers are determined by their history and context. Social, economic, and political factors have led to the modification of cultural patterns, such as diets, among other Latin American Indigenous peoples [
54]. The grandmothers perceived the new food practices that have been adopted by younger generations as having had several consequences, including children becoming sick more often, their growth not being optimal, and even the appearance of illnesses that did not previously exist in the community, such as cancer, which may be caused by chemical substances in the foods that are eaten today. To regain food security and sovereignty as well as improve health and wellbeing, the grandmothers recommended returning to planting and to consuming foods such as corn, peas, beans, collard greens, and fava beans, as well as returning to raising animals for consumption, such as sheep. They also recommended teaching the young girls how to prepare traditional foods, returning to exclusive breastfeeding, and recovering the food culture belonging to their own traditional food customs, such as log cooking and using clay pots. While the findings herein cannot be generalized, they are valuable for broadening the sphere of knowledge about the subject, and they serve as a useful tool for supporting both communities and decision-makers who are addressing this problem in communities with similar characteristics.
In conclusion, although there are many experiences that describe ancestral knowledge and its potential benefits, including nutritional value and food security [
55,
56], the authors have not found any successful experiences published in the specialized literature. More studies are needed to explore possible interventions to recover ancestral food practices, as they are part of the Indigenous worldview. Furthermore, interventions to improve the nutrition conditions of Inga communities should consider these results in order to improve food security and follow a diet that is more appropriate in terms of nutritional requirements. Undoubtedly, an intervention that considers intercultural aspects will be more effective in the long term than an intervention that incorporates elements that are foreign to the Inga culture.
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