“SABERES E SABORES”: FOOD SCIENCE AND THE HEALTH WORK

Abstract

The extension project „Saberes e sabores? promotes the dialogue between Food Science and Health Work through interdisciplinary actions involving food and nutrition, focused on primary health care. The project was divided into several stages, including the "Hands On" stage, object of this report. Culinary workshops were developed by professors and students, together with health agents in the community of Santos-Brazil. Also conversations, recipes preparation and tasting took place, followed by the writing of a cookbook. The collective cooking action allowed, in a playful way, sensory contact with food, preparations and labels in a contextualized subjective experience, being possible to identify values, feelings and experiences in relation to food and eating. This context allowed to maximize the knowledge and experience of the community health agents by introducing new information. It also raised, with creativity and spontaneity, the appropriation and circulation of these information during the performance of agents in the community. The possibility of plural and collective expressions and the exchange of knowledge about food and nutrition focused on autonomy and leadership of individuals who were able to arise their desire to change, placing them as a collaborator of the processes? care. The actions, from the psychosocial point of view, promoted a space for listening, receiving and living experiences provided by the Family Health Strategy group in a region of high vulnerability. This project has been a powerful tool for nutrition education, enabling a close look at educational methods to promote healthy eating, to enhance memory and popular knowledge about eating, to increase autonomy and participation of individuals in their everyday food and health choices.