Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how an active participation and a significant role of pregnant and breastfeeding women in research can be important when we investigate their food and health experiences, creating a horizontal dialogue between them and the researches.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses how a group of pregnant and breastfeeding women construct trust and distrust in food concerning the presence of chemical substances. We have taken into account the perspective of theses women and shown how an active participation and a significant role of them in research can be important when we investigate their food and health experiences. The use of their own viewpoints -keeping in mind their habits, routines, perceptions and worries- allow us to deepen our knowledge on qualitative investigation of social and cultural perception, discourses and practices of internal contamination. This participative way of research shapes a complex approach to build a political economy of environmental health, and to study about the culture of toxicity, food practices and health and quality of life. Giving voice to pregnant and breastfeeding women and integrating their perspectives, this research intends to create a horizontal dialogue between them and the researches and to construct a shared knowledge with anthropologist and other experts. Based on these considerations, this paper goes into more depth on the study of narratives and participative observation of a group of pregnant and breastfeeding women from four different regions of Spain to analyse sociocultural context of acceptance of risk and trust on food consumption and chemical contamination.