Alimentación salud y cultura - SANHISO C. International health and ...

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Diversos autores
Knowing how to cook, preparing the food for the husband and the
children and not for oneself, taking painstaking care of the food, «not losing
the control over the stove», which implies in avoiding any waste, and
being «hard-working», the one who is constantly active in the space of
the house... (CANESQUI, 2005:187-9) 5 .
Moreover, the research made by Assunção (2008) about families
of both middle and popular classes, in a municipal district of Santa
Catarina, Brazil, reveals the meaning of cooking in terms of cooking
for somebody. That is to say, a female practice is directed to the other
family members (assunção, 2008:6). Moreover, the mother’s culinary
knowledge – concerning both the best form of food preparation and
the children’s tastes – becomes a powerful device in the relationship
between the mother and her daughters, sisters, sister-in-laws, and
between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws (assunção, 2008:8 and
10-11).
Contrasting with the tendency for the care of the other, which
characterizes the mother’s and wife’s role in the kitchen; the care of
the self in the eating practice of diabetic women came up as an analytical
dimension throughout the research.
The diabetics’ other researchers have already pointed out the
inflections that the gender provokes in the practices of care of the
self. The Pittman’s work (1999) in the context of the poor neighborhoods
from Avellaneda in Argentina shows that women’s caretaker
role is central in the way they explain both the emergence of diabetes
and the reason why they do not manage to treat themselves appropriately.
When they cannot supply their children’s needs, they get ill
with nervios (PittMan, 1999:9). The diabetes is understood as a consequence
of this situation. Diabetic women describe the care for themselves
as a selfish behavior, which is in opposition to the maternal
attitude: «Yo creo que ser madre te condiciona. Dejás de ser, para vivir
por el otro», as argues one of the author’s interviewees (p.19). Under
penury conditions the mothers tend to sacrifice their own needs in
order to buy the food for their children.
Among the diabetic patients’ interviews in two hospitals of Porto
Alegre-RS, Brazil, Witt (1996) observes one
5 The author’s translation.