Background:

Food is both a material and symbolic entity, both distinguishing and differentiating, and of which the various beliefs surrounding “health” contribute to the tensions of material possessions, current circumstances, and socio-cultural values.

Objective:

To reconstruct women’s understanding and beliefs of healthy food in the Ampliación Ferreyra neighborhood of Cordoba, Argentina.

Materials and Methods:

Qualitative methodology. The sample consisted of seven adult women residing in the neighborhood and who participated in in-depth interviews. Data was analyzed through coding and was then ordered into significant groupings. Descriptive analyses and interpretation of the material was then conducted.

Results:

A contradiction was found between how food words are described by public health and how the sample women emotionally identify with those words. The women identify with these words and foods more as how they relate to behaviors, feelings of belonging or not within the neighborhood, and cooking and eating meals. The foods become part of the collective stories and emotions of the neighborhood, as well as potentially evoking feelings of food insecurity.

Conclusions:

Statements produced by the field of nutrition as ways of thinking, writing, speaking, and preparations related to food intervene in the construction of more subjective ideas. This calls for a re-thinking of unforeseen consequences in respect to the roll of Public Health and Nutrition Education.

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