Living Within Cultural Currents: A Thematic Synthesis of Socio-Cultural Dietary Practices and Stomach Health in Asian Populations

Abstract

Over the past few decades, biomedical and biological understanding of Helicobacter pylori infection, peptic ulcer disease, and chronic gastritis has grown rapidly. However, the delicate and ever-changing behavior of Asian food, as well as the basic sociocultural elements that determine nutritional adherence, have been largely ignored by qualitative research. Purpose of the study: This study aimed to compile, map, and synthesize qualitative empirical data on Asian eating habits, food beliefs, taboos, and traditional ethnomedical medical methods used to navigate stomach and gastrointestinal health. Methods: We systematically search major indexing engines worldwide and locally, such as PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, and Web of Science, to compile topics. Seven high-quality primary qualitative studies involving 650 participants from various ecosystems were identified, assessed using a CASP checklist and synthesized using Thomas and Harden analysis techniques. Results: Four macro themes and various structural subthemes were generated by comprehensive text reciprocal coding and translation. The framework of the debate on how cultural foods are simultaneously protected and prevented consists of these important components. According to the synthesis, nutrition in Asian households is an important social tool for family care, the hierarchy of kinship between generations, and the navigation of biological health. Conclusion: This study clearly shows that eating habits related to stomach and gut health are not solely about metabolic nutrition; It is also a social, gender, and moral issue. Public health nursing and effective therapeutic clinical care must actively address food as a social and moral practice in the way of cultural food, rather than trying to dismantle ancestral belief systems.