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

AlimentAción, sAlud y culturA: encuentros interdisciplinAres
The image of an awkward attitude come up from the woman’s
description when she tries to explain the difficulties of taking care of
herself in the situations of family meetings. The diabetes care seems
to threaten the appropriate sharing of the meals, and therefore the
updating ritual of the group cohesion. Will it be that the woman’s
caretaker identity is threatened when she takes care of herself? Does
the woman’s care of the self threaten the family’s cohesion? Can the
woman only take care of herself when she is alone? What is the gender
of the care of the self?
In the same session of the group mentioned above, Ernesto gave
an example of his own experience:
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He always had lunch at midday, «It is always the same wherever I
am». He told the group that once, on a trip with his nephew, they were
in the highway when he verified the schedule of the lunch. Immediately,
Ernesto said to his nephew that they should have lunch, and he was
inflexible on the subject. The situation led to an argument because his
nephew wanted to postpone the schedule of the lunch. Since then they
have not talked to each other anymore. Ernesto said that it was similarly
very difficult to arrange schedules for the Sunday lunch with his children.
He said that he solved the problem by deciding that those who
wanted to eat lunch with him should go to his house, and then he would
take charge of preparing the meal personally, «and it is being like this
since then» (Field notes).
Ernesto did not demonstrate the same awkward attitude to solve
the difficulties with the care of himself. On the contrary, he imposed
his need in quite a decisive way. He lives with his wife and his sons
are all married. Differently from other men that I interviewed, Ernesto
maintained quite an autonomous attitude towards the care of himself:
he prepared his food personally.
However, in some cases of diabetic men the families reorient
their own eating habits to make the father’s diet possible. This is the
case of Walter. I asked him if the relatives helped in the care with the
diabetes:
They help a lot. At home, my wife makes everything that exists in
a sweet shop, in a bakery... she makes it diet and light for me! (...) she
makes everything diet.