Cultural Interview Report

For my cultural interview, I decided to speak to my old high school friend, Krupa, who follows Hindu beliefs. I wanted to get some insight into her particular views regarding nutrition deficits in the pediatric world. The reason I chose this topic is because I knew Krupa was a strict vegetarian, which is followed by many Hindu’s. She does not eat meat, and will not even use knifes and such that have been in contact with meat. The main reason behind this is that she does not believe in hurting animals in any way, especially killing them. Krupa has a 4-year-old child who also does not eat meat, which could potentially cause the child to be under nourished.
For the interview, I used the questions listed in the Kleinman Exploratory Model article. I first asked her what she would call this issue, and her answer was “malnourished”. She stated that …show more content…
The biggest difference in our beliefs is regarding vegetarian diets. I think that meat is an important part of a child’s diet and provides a good source of protein and other nutrients. Krupa was under the impression that her daughter would need a lot of supplements in the future, but this is not reality. The only thing that would need to be substituted would be Vitamin B12. The child will not die because they are vegetarian, but having meat in the diet will have a good amount of benefits. I do believe that a vegetarian diet is not healthy for a growing child.
I didn’t agree with Krupas belief that “hurting” animals should not be done and that people should not eat meat. In my beliefs, animals were put on the earth for a reason, and that reason is to nourish our bodies. Cattle, pigs, and chickens were all given a purpose to feed our bodies. I know a lot of vegetarians, and now know that Hindu’s are usually vegetarian, but I still think that meat should be a part of every diet and the harvesting of animals is the only