Exploring Health and Culture in Ottawa: A Detailed Report

This report provides an insightful exploration of health and culture in Ottawa, Canada. The author, a student, shares their observations and findings from a visit to the city, focusing on the influence of French culture, the multicultural population, and the healthcare landscape. The report examines the ...Read More

Running Head: HEALTH AND CULTURE IN OTTAWA
HEALTH AND CULTURE IN OTTAWA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Travelling and exploring different places is one of the most interesting and adventurous
thing anyone can do. Being someone who is always enthusiastic about discovering new places, it
is a blessing in disguise to learn about a new community all by myself. Finding about the culture,
health practices, lifestyle, aesthetics and other such things, which a tourist would love to know. I
will be exploring Ottawa, which is the capital of Canada located in the province of Ontario, it
consists of a community which is highly influenced by the French culture due to its historical
background. Ottawa is the 4th largest city in the country and has a population of 1,378,151 in the
year 2019 according to Worldpopulationreview.com (2019).
It is a well-known fact that Canada is a beautiful country and so Ottawa. As my tour
began, I started coming in reality with all the things I had heard from people about the city and
its rich culture. After leaving from Golden triangle where I was staying, I took a city bus to reach
Downtown. Public transport is easily available in this city as a bus is allocated for the Ottawa
River area. I started from exploring the wide ranges of greenery and aesthetically pleasing
gardens and parks near Downtown, which is a neighborhood in Ottawa just like Westboro,
Orleans, Golden Triangle, The Glebe and more. To name a few they have Allan Gardens
Conservatory and Tommy Thompson Park, which is visited by locals and tourists as a pastime
and family recreation. The people living in the city are multicultural due to a high immigration
rate, however it makes the experience better to observe people of different ethnicity and regions
with different backgrounds and countries. After talking to a few guides, I came to know that
Ottawa had a settlement of French and Irish people in the past but due to globalization and easy
access to immigration, foreign population started increasing to 24% decreasing the rate of
minority groups (Worldpopulationreview.com, 2019). The city has a domination of Christianity
and more of Roman Catholism, which has a higher population than any other group. It has a

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diverse population consisting of both established Canadians and the visitors who do not have the
permanent visa, with that the most common language spoken is English and the French. One of
the popular religious spots are Notre-Dame Cathedral and I visited this church later in the
evening.
A common activity I noticed in these tourist spots were that the local people had the habit
of consuming excess amount of junk food, as quite a no of options are available in terms of
traditional or foreign cuisines (Sanou et al., 2014). The place had more of French cuisine
restaurants due to its French influence and population of European background. While my tour
was going on, I visited restaurants for lunch as I was starving. A café named Metropolitan
Brasserie grabbed my attention as it served French cuisine, after ordering my meal, I noticed the
people sitting there, which made me realize that the local people were really fond of the food
served in that restaurant, especially the kids. Later on I went to Beck’ta Dining and Wine Bar,
which served traditional Canadian food and gave a pleasure of fine dining. Interestingly, York
Street is used for bar hopping and had a good number of nightclubs that showed a picture about
the alcohol consumption and gave a clear idea about the health negligence aspect of this
community (Ottawa.ca, 2019). With an increasing rate of junk food consumption and
indiscipline lifestyle as evident due to the crowds in these clubs it showed that people in Ottawa
are not responsible for their health (Moubarac et al,. 2014). This city has a good number of
healthcare centers with renowned healthcare experts to guide and mentor people about diet and a
healthy lifestyle, with economical medical plans and benefits given by the government (Patterson
et al., 2018).
Byward Market Square in Ottawa near Downtown is a place to buy groceries and get the
local street foods, to know about the local ingredients of the city, it is necessary to visit this

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market as told by my guide. However, I took my trip forward and went to byward market square,
which had fresh produces of fruits, vegetables and cheese as it is a farmer’s market. The local
street food had a fried dough dessert that I tasted due to the crowd near the stall.
The tour I had in Ottawa, specifically downtown gave an exposure to my learning skills
as I practically learnt details about a culture that will not be given to me through any websites or
books. The health care aspect in this community is not as impressive as I expected it to be, due to
their social and medical unawareness.

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Reference
Moubarac, J. C., Batal, M., Martins, A. P. B., Claro, R., Levy, R. B., Cannon, G., & Monteiro, C.
(2014). Processed and ultra-processed food products: consumption trends in Canada from
1938 to 2011. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 75(1), 15-21.
Ottawa.ca. (2019). Health and public safety | City of Ottawa. Retrieved 4 October 2019, from
https://ottawa.ca/en/health-and-public-safety
Patterson, F., Roberts, C., Hanson, M. D., Hampe, W., Eva, K., Ponnamperuma, G., ... &
Cleland, J. (2018). 2018 Ottawa consensus statement: Selection and recruitment to the
healthcare professions. Medical teacher, 40(11), 1091-1101.
Planet, L. (2019). Ottawa travel | Ontario, Canada - Lonely Planet. Retrieved 4 October 2019,
from https://www.lonelyplanet.com/canada/ontario/ottawa#food-and-drink
Sanou, D., O’Reilly, E., Ngnie-Teta, I., Batal, M., Mondain, N., Andrew, C., ... & Bourgeault, I.
L. (2014). Acculturation and nutritional health of immigrants in Canada: a scoping
review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 16(1), 24-34.
Worldpopulationreview.com. (2019). Retrieved 4 October 2019, from
http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/ottawa-population/