Discourses and the Construction of Common Sense about Food Based on a Women's Magazine

Several factors contribute to the construction of common sense on food with impact on public health. In this study, our hypothesis was that media discourse plays an important structuring role in the process of body aesthetics & food patterns construction & consolidation, producing collective senses that interfere in the choices made by people. The study aimed to recognize the discursive strategies adopted by a media vehicle targeted at women about healthy eating, & their contribution to the formation of common sense on the subject. We analyzed the twelve cover reports of a women's magazine published in 2007, according to the theoretical framework of discourse analysis. A discourse full of ambiguity between beauty & health was observed, with a strong appeal to sensuality & to the cult of the perfect body, predominantly divergent from scientific knowledge in the nutrition area, legitimized by two other cross discourses, the socioaesthetic & the specialized ones. We conclude that the discursive strategies adopted by the media vehicle that was examined contribute to the formation of a common knowledge about eating habits that is fragile & does not enable people to make independent & healthy choices. Adapted from the source document.