Culinária saudável para menores de dois anos: uma experiência em famílias vulneráveis do Sertão do Ceará

Abstract

Cooking operates affective memories in a communicative dimension of narratives and can become an important element for promoting healthy eating. The narratives that we will analyze in the central sertão of Ceará are ways of resignifying what is meant by healthy eating built in the social territory where the community lives. The creativity and resilience of sertaneja families cross generations and are manifested in the adaptation of culinary preparations for their children, incorporating influences from the globalized world. We delimited our field of study in the municipality of Quixadá, whose climate marks the cuisine with a contrasting nature: short period of rains in winter, against a long summer with moments of drought, which justifies a restricted agricultural production linked to the insufficiency of water reserve. in their springs in the poorest regions. This work intends to analyze the senses and meanings of cuisine as an expression of country culture in the families of children under two, taking Mary Douglas' metaphor in which a culture is based on the body like a skin before being a glove. The local mapping started in March 2019, with the contextualization of the local culture experienced. Narrative analysis obtained through semi-structured interviews was applied in the light of the theoretical framework of the anthropological concept of cuisine, the praxiological theory of Bourdieu and the concept of consumption by Mary Douglas. The families were accessed through Basic Health Units and two institutions of the local Catholic Church that provide assistance to the vulnerable population. It can be seen that the meanings brought in the culinary preparation for children under two years old are articulated with the need to strengthen the being, with survival, with affective memory, with a strong sense of identity and social belonging. The influences and developments of the guidelines of the Food Guide for the Brazilian Population were considered, corroborating with public policies on health and Food and Nutrition Security. The results showed the human potential of resilience applied to cooking at the time of food introduction and a creativity and affection incorporated in the commensality of family nuclei and their networks of coexistence in raising children.