Yvette Walker
With KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices, where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Joining me today is Jackie Lopez, registered dietitian and physician assistant. Thank you so much for being with us today, Jackie.
Jackie Lopez
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Yvette Walker
How has becoming a physician assistant allowed you to make a deeper impact on the patients you serve?
Jackie Lopez
The more I've learned, the more I can impart on my patients. I can take them from the very beginning of their care, step by step. We talk about nutrition therapy, what they can do to manage their disease, whether it be liver disease, diabetes, hypertension. But as a PA, I get to prescribe, I get to order imaging, I get to change their medications. I get to communicate with other doctors about where I want to send them, where I want to refer them, and I get to empower them more in their own health journey.
Yvette Walker
So what are some common themes you have found when treating the Latino community with dietary changes aimed at enhancing their quality of life?
Jackie Lopez
Social eating, triggers for eating, food choices, traditional food choices, right? I mean, Latinos, we have our ways. We have, you know, we know what we're going to eat at Las Posadas. We know when the Primos come over, you know, what our go to foods are. Also socioeconomic limitations to healthy eating, from grocery shopping to fast food, all of that does take a role in education too. What our grandmas or grandparents taught us help - herbal remedies, home remedies, versus what the latest is. So education is definitely something we touch on, and I often have to gauge what they know before I meet them there and then expand on that.
Yvette Walker
So what are the greatest challenges you find with treating our Latino community?
Jackie Lopez
A big challenge is financial limitations, because I work in a clinic where we don't take insurance. Currently, a big limitation is going to be your ability to pay. The imaging that I want to order, the labs like, say, you're diabetic, and I want to order a full panel of labs. That one's going to cost $100, $200 whatever it be, over a partial panel. So then guiding the patient to okay, this is the minimum I would test medications. Am I going to order a brand medication or a generic medication? What can you pay? What do you feel comfortable doing? Let me meet you there. I'd say another challenge, literacy. It's hard for everybody. I mean, even us, we providers. We have to continually learn, and we just get jumbled. So imagine being you know, on the receiving end of all the information out there, speaking the Spanish, I had to practice and practice medical terminology. So expressing clearly and accurately what I'm trying to explain, once I listen and know where they're coming from, there's a teach back method I learned as a dietitian that I impart as a PA. So, you know, teach it back to me, and that's, I think, the biggest thing I can do.
Yvette Walker
Jackie, the million-dollar question, how can we keep our traditional staples while implementing healthier eating habits?
Jackie Lopez
We can reorder the way we eat, our food choices, and prioritize protein and vegetables upfront, hydrating before we start eating, and that kind of keeps us from craving so much of the salty and the sugary. But I will always meet them in the middle, because it is core to who we are in our upbringing, you know, and it's about quality of life as well. So I'd say reordering how you eat, the items that you're choosing to eat for that meal, prioritizing the healthy and also cutting in half - portion control. So if you usually eat five tortillas per meal, start by cutting it in half and then cut it in half again once you get used to that. Because nobody wants to be told that you cannot have rice and beans anymore. You know, that's just, it's hard. There are patients who are all or nothing out there. It's like, I'm gonna take it all off. But that's not the most sustainable.
Yvette Walker
Well, what kind of quality of life is that, cutting out tortillas or rice and beans?
Jackie Lopez
I know. You know, you could do the cauliflower rice and you can do lentejas.
Yvette Walker
It must be refreshing to have a provider like yourself that is so patient and so accommodating to those cultural dynamics and attitudes and barriers that just naturally come with being a Latino. Thank you so much for your work. Before we go, please let us know. How can new patients reach out to you?
Jackie Lopez
Yes, please reach out to my email. It's JackieBLopez@gmail.com.
Yvette Walker
Thank you so much for being with us today, Jackie.
Jackie Lopez
Thank you so much, Yvette.
Yvette Walker
My guest today has been Jackie Lopez, registered dietitian and physician assistant. Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org/IELatinoVoices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from the CIELO Fund at IECF, uplifting and investing in the IE’s Latino community. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
