Possible versus desired diets: food legislation as additional stress for low-income mothers

ABSTRACT

Deciding what, where, when and how much to feed a child occupies much of a mother’s time, energy, and financial resources. This study aids our understanding of the effects of legislation promoting healthier eating on mothers from low socioeconomic groups and on their families. We interview mothers and nutrition experts in Santiago, Chile – the site of the most recent and comprehensive effort to change a population’s food habits via legislation. We introduce the notions of ‘desired diets’ – ideal diets promoted by health experts and public policy discourses that moralise food consumption and promote consumer responsibilisation for health-related issues; and ‘possible diets’ – diets that mothers can adapt to and habituate in the household, considering their life realities. We argue that the notions of possible and desired diets often find themselves at odds, leading to mothers facing moral scrutiny, anxiety, and stress, which affects their sense of self, shaping notions of ‘good mothering’.

KEYWORDS:

• Food socialisation
• food labels
• family consumption
• food environment
• practice habituation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See the design of the labels and the most up-to-date information on their effects in the following link https://www.minsal.cl/ley-de-alimentos-manual-etiquetado-nutricional/ (in Spanish).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raquel Donskoy

Raquel Donskoy is an Independent Research Assistant in Santiago, Chile.

Flavia Cardoso

Flavia Cardoso is an Assistant Professor at Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile. Her research interests include macro-level factors influencing consumer behaviour, market systems and activism. Flavia’s research covers distinct areas related to consumer experiences, including consumer activism, family consumption and retailing.