Paper short abstract:

The aim of this work is to reflect on the challenges of integrating the anthropological approach in the training of dietitians-nutritionists and in the construction of an interdisciplinary, critical and holistic view of food among these professionals.

Paper long abstract:

In the last three decades, the field of dietetics has progressively become professionalized and dietitians-nutritionists have become important actors in the medical field, both at the level of individual and collective attention, in the creation and transmission of dietary norms. This professionalization has occurred in parallel (and as part) of the process of medicalization of food. The latter has led to the consolidation of "nutritional rationality", based on a mechanistic and technical paradigm, favoring the biological and nutritional dimensions of food to the detriment of the social, cultural, symbolic and economic dimensions. Although nutrition is a complex bio-psycho-socio-cultural fact, in the training of dietitians-nutritionists, this nutritional approach based on modern biomedical thought and the tradition of scientific positivism is privileged.

The anthropology and sociology of food have theoretical-methodological perspectives of great relevance for understanding the act of eating in all its complexity and for the development of a professional practice that is critical and that considers the social, cultural, economic and political dimensions of food. However, the study programs in dietetics usually include marginal and/or secondary subjects or knowledge of the social sciences.

The aim of this work is to reflect on the challenges of integrating the anthropological approach in the training of dietitians-nutritionists and in the construction of an interdisciplinary, critical and holistic view of food among these professionals. It will also address how anthropology has been included in this field, as well as how relationships are established with professors from other academic fields.