Modos de comer: práticas alimentares de trabalhadores de uma empresa prestadora de serviços de alimentação

Abstract

The current discussions of food and health put the space as an important factor of healthy choices. There are few studies that make an analysis of social relations in the food practices of a social group of low income in a given social context. Thus, our objective is to analyze the eating habits of a group of workers in their workspace. The environment of research was a government facility intended to offer adequate food at affordable prices to the population of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the Citizen Restaurant. We used the methodological criteria of qualitative research and we privileged for the fieldwork the semi -structured interview. The empirical material was treated through the Discourse Analysis and the theoretical framework comprised the Pierre Bourdieu's discussions about the concept of habitus and the accumulated discussion of sociology and anthropology related to feeding practices. We interviewed 10 employees, of both sexes, from the company that manages the production process of restaurant meals. In the workplace are carried out three meals a day: breakfast at 7 a.m., the first lunch between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. and the second lunch after closing the restaurant at 3 p.m.. Food choices are made from a pre-defined menu planned by the restaurant nutritionist, allowing the employees to serve at their will of the preparations, with the exception of the second lunch because at this time, you can eat only what is left after the closing of the restaurant to the public. The employees consume the fruits and vegetables available in the restaurant daily; however this practice is not repeated at home because they are not "much for this kind of food", this type of foods spoils quickly or even, it requires work to wash and cut them. It is observed the reproduction of a discursive normativity of Nutrition to link the consumption of these foods to the idea of healthy feeding. Pleasure and sociability through diet were observed when employees pay contributions for the purchase of food for preparation of different types of food rather than what is usually done in the restaurant, for example, green broth, pasta and ribs - the "pratão". Given the above, we are led to believe that on one side, feeding in this workspace is guided by nutritional reference, on the other, when considering human feeding linked to personal experiences and traditional requirements is plausible to think that culture influences directly in the choice of foods. We also observed the work and its conditions influencing in the relationship between man and his feeding practices through the breakdown concerning the time and the type of food. These practices show eating habits influenced by various factors that relate and together select a feeding practice shared through the community lunch " to consume " pratão"