Kirsten Bell, PhD Joyce Lee, MA Svetlana Ristovski-Slijepcevic, PhD Perceptions of Food and Eating Among Chinese Patients With Cancer Findings of an Ethnographic Study K E Y W O R D S Chinese patients Diet Eating Ethnography Food Support groups This article explores the ways that participants in a Chinese cancer support group talk about food, diet, and eating. An ethnographic research design was used, including participant observation at a Chinese cancer support group over an 8-month period and key informant interviews with 7 members of the group. Food, eating, and diet were a recurrent focus of discussion at support group meetings throughout the fieldwork period. The ways in which support group participants talked about food centered on 3 distinct but interconnected themes: the prevalence of eating issues as an adverse effect of cancer and its treatment, the importance of eating ability, and questions and concerns connected with the differing and often contradictory cultural models of diet that they were exposed to. Culturally specific understandings of the relationship between food and health informed Chinese patients’ experience of eating issues during cancer treatments and their ongoing concern with food and nutrition after the completion of treatment. Health professionals need to pay more attention to the meanings and attributes of food and eating beyond their physiological properties, and further research needs to be conducted with other immigrant populations with culturally distinct understandings of food. 118 n Cancer Nursing TM , Vol. 32, No. 2, 2009 Bell et al Copyright B 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Authors’ Affiliations: Sociobehavioural Research Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada (Drs Bell and Ristovski-Slijepcevic and Ms Lee); Anthropology Department (Dr Bell) and Department of Food, Nutrition and Health (Dr Ristovski-Slijepcevic), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. This research was funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New and Emerging Team grant entitled ‘‘Palliative Care in a Cross Cultural Context: A New and Emerging Team (NET) for Equitable and Quality Cancer Care for Culturally Diverse Populations’’ (PET 69768). Ethical approval was obtained from the British Columbia Cancer Agency Research Ethics Board (H07-01532) before commencing this study. Corresponding author: Kirsten Bell, PhD, Sociobehavioural Research Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency, 600-750 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1H5 (kbell@bccancer.bc.ca). Accepted for publication August 21, 2008. 9 Copyright @ 200 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.