Nutritional beliefs are greatly affected by cultures and religions

Question Answered step-by-step Nutritional beliefs are greatly affected by cultures and religionsin some cases. For this discussion, I chose to discuss how the religion “Islam” affects nutritional beliefs. Islam is one of the “major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century CE,” (Rahman, 2021). In the article “Cultural Competence in the Care of Muslim Patients and Their Families,” the authors discuss how when it comes to nutrition, Islam prohibits alcohol, non-Halal animal fats, pork, by-products of pork, and any animals that have been slaughtered in the name of another deity other than Allah. Some Muslims may choose to refuse food from hospitals and may ask their family to bring them food instead. If the family is not able to accommodate them, then the hospital may provide them with eggs, seafood, vegetables and fruits only to accommodate their nutritional beliefs. In addition, during the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast. Fasting for Muslims means no food or liquids, including water, is consumed between sunrise and sundown. Patients choose to fast because Ramadan is the most blessed and spiritual month of the Islamic year. Also, it is important to note that Ramadan does not fall on the same month every year as the Muslim calendar is not the same as the traditional calendar (Attum et al., 2021).  With that said, it is extremely important to take these nutritional beliefs into consideration when caring for a practicing Muslim patient. The nurse should implement some interventions in place in order to meet the patient’s needs while meeting their beliefs. For instance, for Muslim patients the nurse needs to ensure that only halal meat is served to those patients, if that is not an option in the hospital then seafood, vegetables and fruits could be served instead. Also, it is important for the nurse to ensure that alcohol, pork products such as gelatin pork are not served to Muslim patients as these products are prohibited in their religion. If possible, providers should give medications that do not include any pork products in order to meet the nutritional beliefs of Muslims. In addition, it is important to check with Muslim patients whether they are fasting or not because if they are then a nutritional plan needs to be set in place for those patients to ensure that they get a sufficient amount of micronutrients and macronutrients while fasting. In cases where the patient is choosing to fast, it is important for the nurse to teach the patient to eat pre-dawn and post-evening meals that include carbohydrates that release energy slowly. Also, diabetes education is crucial in these cases as fasting could have a huge impact on diabetic patients. A pre-fasting assessment of patients with diabetes is recommended so they can be made aware of the risks and strategies to avoid problems. In some cases, diabetic patients might be encouraged to refrain from fasting as it could pose a risk on their health causing hypoglycemia for example.Article Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499933/References:Attum, B., Hafiz, S., Malik, A., & Shamoon, Z. (2021, September 6). Cultural Competence in the Care of Muslim Patients and Their Families. NCBI. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499933/Rahman, F. (2021, August 17). Islam | Religion, Beliefs, Practices, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam Health Science Science Nursing NURS 225 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)