Comportamento alimentar de imigrantes bolivianos portadores de diabetes e hipertensão

Abstract

International migratory flows have become an important social phenomenon, with an impact on host countries. Economic factors are the main motivators for this event, where many people move around aiming for better living conditions. Food goes beyond the biological need to maintain life, being a complex theme that does not lend itself to generalizations or simplifying explanations. A pleasurable act that allows a connection with the different meanings, comprising cultural heritage, affective memory and sociability. It allows the understanding of how individuals and / or groups print their beliefs and values. It also concerns chronic diseases as a consequence of living and working conditions and acquired eating behaviors. Diseases such as diabetes and hypertension have a multifactorial etiology and share modifiable risk factors, external and individual. In order to understand the eating behavior of Bolivian immigrants with diabetes and hypertension, a qualitative study was carried out, through ethnographic observation and semi-structured interviews, at the Bolivian Residents' Association. Ten Bolivian immigrants with hypertension and / or diabetes participated in the study. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed in full. The data collected were analyzed and organized into categories of analysis, including the difficulty of adapting food and nostalgia for Bolivian food; food from a gender perspective; the modification of eating behavior in São Paulo and the therapeutic itinerary in search of health care in the face of diseases. The results presented in this study indicate changes in the food consumption of Bolivian immigrants, pointing to a new scenario of problems related to food and nutrition. There was a growing consumption of foods with high energy density - propensity to consume industrialized foods and replacement of the main meals (lunch and dinner) by fast foods. This eating behavior observed in some interviewees was justified and / or motivated by the living and working conditions in São Paulo and also by the characteristics (flavor, texture, smell) of these foods - highly palatable, promoters of emotions as pleasure when being tasted, becoming part of the everyday life in the metropolis. Those conducts that increase the probability of harmful effects on human health, such as the development of pathologies, which represent significant costs for the health system. There is the importance of public policies that respect, protect and promote the rights to food and, therefore to health, considering economic conditions, cultural diversity and their meanings.