Abstract
Based on its initial objective of investigating the eating practices of individuals who adhered to physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study broadened its analysis and opposed the claims that deemed the domestic space and commensality as organizers of healthy eating practices. The qualitative data was obtained from interviews with adults living in the metropolitan region of Salvador or in the Recôncavo Baiano who reported following physical distancing guidelines. The analysis highlighted the effects of enduring physical distancing in the domestic sphere, which materially and subjectively redimensioned the following food practices in the face of the pandemic: buying meals by delivery applications, cooking, eating, and commensality. Despite exceptional reports regarding the pandemic, these data provide food for thought about the ways of living and maneuvering a domestic everyday life that fail to necessarily reflect or translate the “mantras of a healthy life” in an almost naturalized way and show the complexity of food practices that takes place in a context in which the modern way of life has invaded homes in its multiplicity of urban commensalities.
Keywords:
Eating practices; COVID-19; Qualitative Research; Feeding in the Urban Context