Food Taboos and Avoidance Practices affecting Pregnant Women at Larteh in the Akwapim North District, Eastern Region, Ghana

Purpose: The cultural beliefs of a group of people play a pivotal role in determining the nutritional status and well-being of the people. Understanding food beliefs and practices is critical to the development of dietary recommendations, nutritional programmes, and educational messages. An aspect of cultural beliefs that greatly affect majority of people especially children, pregnant women and the aged is food taboos and avoidance practices. The main aim of this study is to explore the various food taboos and its associated practices that affect pregnant women in Larteh. Materials and Methods: The study employed aspects of quantitative and qualitative approaches, and used the cross-sectional exploratory design. The random sampling technique was used to select 75 participants for the quantitative aspect, whilst the purposive sampling approach was used to select five opinion leaders for the qualitative aspect. A closed-ended structured questionnaire was used to obtain quantitative data, whilst a structured interview guide was used to collect the qualitative data. Whilst the quantitative data was analysed using frequencies and percentages in IBM-SPSS v9, the qualitative data was analysed using narratives. The results were presented in tables. Findings: Among the key findings were pregnant women were forbidden from eating snails, crabs, shellfish mudfish and eggs. It was further revealed that the people perceive these taboos as a way to protect pregnant women from experiencing stillbirths, deformities and delayed labour, among others. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: The sociological theory of functionalist perceptive anchored the study and its assertion that food taboos and avoidance practices are handed down to generations was affirmed. It was thus suggested that there should be public education on the nutritional needs of people in Larteh, especially the vulnerable so that adequate provision can be made for them because of food scarcity and limited choices of food commodities due to numerous food taboos and avoidance practices. Moreover, given the deep-rooted nature of the beliefs, it is advisable that when nutritious foods are restricted, nutritional interventions should rather search for alternative sources of nutrition, which are available and considered appropriate for pregnant women.