Artigos

Conteúdo (article):

Phenomenological approaches to qualitative research in the field of Nutrition in Brazil: a literature review

Francisco de Assis Guedes de Vasconcelos (https://orcid.org//0000-0002-6162-8067)  

Abstract This study examined scientific production that has used a phenomenological framework in the field of Nutrition in Brazil. An exploratory literature review was carried out in the following databases: Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD); CAPES Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations; SciELO Brazil; LILACS; PubMed®; and Google Scholar. The 19 studies examined, published between 2002 and 2024, most set in Salvador, Bahia (n = 10; 52.6%), all used semi-structured interviews (n = 19; 100%). The study objects (hunger, obesity, eating disorders, breastfeeding, healthy eating) are characteristically complex, sensitive, multidimensional issues that form part of the nutrition epidemiology scenario in Brazil and are phenomena that feature in the daily experience of millions of Brazilians. The studies’ methodological procedures were based, most prominently and in order of frequency, on the authors: Gadamer, Schutz, Heidegger, Ricoeur and Merleau-Ponty. It is concluded that, in Nutrition, qualitative research with a phenomenological approach continues to prove a substantial, attractive and promising field of study that can make alternative and/or complementary contributions to investigation of Brazil’s nutrition problems.
Keywords Qualitative research, Phenomenology, Nutrition.
 
Introduction
Brazil’s higher education personnel improvement agency (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES)1 situates Nutrition – a scientific field in the sociological sense of Pierre Bourdieu2 – as one of the nine fields of assessment in the Life Sciences. On the tree of knowledge specified defined by the country’s national science and technology development council (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq), Nutrition also constitutes one of the nine fields of knowledge in the Health Sciences3.
That Nutrition should be situated in the field of the Health Sciences is a phenomenon dating from the historical emergence of this field of knowledge in both the world context4-7 and in Brazil8-11. Meanwhile, historical analyses have shown that, in recent decades, in addition to its biological character, Nutrition and has taken on social and environmental dimensions, to become a multidisciplinary field of knowledge4-11,12-14. Notwithstanding the methodological and epistemological complexity, breadth and heterogeneity of the formation of Nutrition8-12 as a field of science1, analyses of related scientific production reveal a hegemony of quantitative studies15-16. This suggests a need to think about research strategies seeking interdisciplinary approaches among the different bodies of knowledge that have structured the field10-14. Under current CAPES norms for assessment of Nutrition17, the field comprises five subfields: i) Food and Collective Diet; ii) Human and Social Sciences in Food and Nutrition; iii) Food and Nutrition Epidemiology and Policies; iv) Basic and Experimental Nutrition; and v) Clinical Nutrition.
There are few studies analysing qualitative research in the field of Nutrition in Brazil. One attempt to locate the starting point of a timeline of analyses of qualitative research in Nutrition in Brazil was a pioneering study by Ana Maria Canesqui18 published in 2009 in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) electronic database, examining 93 scientific articles published between 1985 and 2007. At the time, Canesqui18 concluded that the qualitative studies she had examined enabled Nutrition to dialogue with the social and human sciences. Nonetheless, she pointed to a need for researchers in the field to improve theoretical and methodological skills. She wrote that, by assimilating concepts and methodologies from the social and human sciences, particularly since the early years of the twenty-first century, researchers in the field of Nutrition had signalled a broader “understanding of the complexity of the food event in the evaluative, symbolic, subjective and motivational dimensions, beyond its physiological and material character”18 (p. 135).
Vasconcelos15-16 identified and analysed philosophical and methodological currents of scientific knowledge framing dissertations and theses produced in postgraduate programmes in Nutrition in Brazil between 2003 and 2012, The study found that, of a total of 962 dissertations and theses, 92.5% (n = 890) took a quantitative approach, while only 7.3% (n = 70) took a qualitative or mixed approach. The author argued that those findings denoted the strong influence that philosophical currents based on Positivism and the biological sciences exerted on the formation of the field of Nutrition, while the social and human sciences and philosophical currents such as Dialectics and Phenomenology exerted very limited influence.
In the vast literature existing in the world context, Phenomenology – as a philosophical current and methodological frame of reference for qualitative research – emerged and became established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, beginning with studies by Edmund Husserl [1859-1938]19-23. Husserl developed Transcendental Phenomenology or Pure Phenomenology, a form of philosophical thinking or a research method structured on key concepts such as phenomenon, intuition, intentionality, consciousness and transcendence. This philosophical or methodological current was concerned with examining lived experiences, analysing the essences of things-in-themselves or phenomena. It conceived phenomena as all that appears to consciousness and all consciousness as consciousness of something. It is generally assumed that the different currents of phenomenological thinking owe their origins to Husserl. These references include particularly: i) Martin Heidegger [1889-1976], who pursued and/or even revised Husserl’s ideas, to create an Ontological Phenomenology to explore the meanings of being of the human being. Building on his concept of being-in-the-world, Heidegger sought to think about the condition of being that exists as consciousness of its presence in the world and in time; ii) Alfred Schutz [1899-1959], who developed the idea of Sociological Phenomenology based on the analysis of intersubjective relations constructed by men (subjects of the social world) over their life course or everyday experiences; iii) Hans-Georg Gadamer [1900-2002], who formulated Philosophical Hermeneutic Phenomenology, which regards comprehension and interpretation as intimately related methodological procedures in the process of seeking knowledge. Accordingly, any examination of the meanings attributed to phenomena should give due value to the language used in mediating between the meanings of the real world and the subjectivities of the individuals involved; iv) Jean-Paul Sartre [1905-1980], who proposed an Existentialist Phenomenology resting on the notion that, in the process of understanding man’s relationship with the world, existence precedes essence, as well as affirming the social change-making action of men (subjects) in the world; v) Maurice Merleau-Ponty [1908-1961], who conceived a Phenomenology of Perception or of embodied consciousness, in that that consciousness results from body perception, the body (the sense-creating field) being the place where the sensory, at the same time, constitutes an object of knowledge and a manifestation of subjectivity; and vi) Paul Ricoeur [1913-2005], who produced a Hermeneutic Phenomenology, drawing on the assumption that interpretation of phenomena results from a mediation between lived experiences and their comprehension in language19-23.
Literature reviews in recent years have found the phenomenological method used in research in the health field, most frequently in the field of Nursing, but also in Medicine, Collective Health and Nutrition22-23. The evidence indicates however that, as compared with quantitative studies, qualitative studies are still scarce in the field of Nutrition in Brazil9 12,15,16. The hypothesis then is that the number of qualitative studies taking a phenomenological approach in the field of Nutrition in Brazil must be very much smaller still. In that light, this article is relevant in that it seeks to fill a knowledge gap and answer the following research question: What are the characteristics of qualitative research with a phenomenological approach conducted in the field of Nutrition in Brazil?
The purpose of this article was to characterise scientific production that has used a phenomenological frame of reference in the field of Nutrition in Brazil.

Methods
The article reports on an exploratory, descriptive literature review to characterise scientific production using a phenomenological frame of reference in the field of Nutrition in Brazil. The methodological procedures and/or stages applied in this study do not follow strict protocols recommended by specific literature review “typologies”24-27. However the following stages traditionally reported in systematic, integrative and narrative reviews have been freely adopted and/or adapted24-27: i) specification of the study object issue; ii) formulation of the research question and/or study objectives; iii) specification of descriptors and databases; iv) specification of eligibility criteria for study selection, inclusion and exclusion; v) characterisation and analysis of the studies (data); and vi) discussion of results and summary of findings.
The literature survey was conducted, in late August 2024 and updated on 22 November 2024, in the following electronic databases: Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD); CAPES Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations; Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO Brasil); Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS); PubMed®/National Library of Medicine (NLM); and Google Scholar, using specific search strategies for each database, as in the descriptive summary in Table 1.
Given the purpose of the article, the following inclusion criteria were applied: studies must be original (primary or empirical data) in the field of Nutrition in Brazil, with no filters or time frame, published in Portuguese, English or Spanish and available in full. The following were excluded: studies repeated and/or duplicated in the databases; review articles, essays and methodological studies; books and book chapters; technical reports, informative notes and articles and/or abstracts published in scientific event annals; and original studies addressing the issue, but relating to other fields or areas of knowledge.
The article search, selection, inclusion and exclusion procedures are shown as a flow diagram in Figure 1. The first stage of the search, conducted in the BDTD, CAPES, SciELO, LILACS and PubMed databases, located 44 titles. After exclusion of duplicates and repetitions (n = 5) and application of the screening and eligibility stages, 11 studies were included for analysis and discussion from these basses overall. Subsequently, with a view to increasing the number of studies, a complementary search was conducted in the Google Scholar database. Note that the search of Google Scholar identified approximately 11,000 results. Accordingly, given the specific characteristics of the database, which would have required exhaustive information mining, it was decided to screen only the first 20 pages of the results, corresponding to a total of 200 titles (ten titles per page), from which six more studies were selected. The literature on biographical reviews that have used the Google Scholar database as a source offers no consensus as to the parameters reported for the number of pages consulted: there are reports of using the first five28, the first ten29, the first 1430 and the first 2031. These articles cited make no mention of a “theoretical frame of reference” underpinning the numbers of pages. Authors generally report that Google Scholar was a complementary database and that, because of the vast number of records located, searching was restricted to a certain number of pages. That is, it is argued that it was not intended to conduct an exhaustive search of the literature, but merely to identify articles in order to achieve the purposes of the study28-31.
In identifying authors’ basic backgrounds and institutional affiliations so as to screen for and select those connected with the field of Nutrition, first the author information on the articles’ title page was consulted first and, in its absence, the Lattes curriculum on the CNPq platform. Note also that an additional search and selection procedure for original articles was conducted by consulting the list of references of the articles examined, from which a further two articles were located and included. As a result, at the end of the search, selection, inclusion and exclusion procedures, 19 studies were included in the review, as shown in Figure 1.
For purposes of analysis, the articles were categorised by the following characteristics: authors, year of publication, study site and database searched; purpose; theoretical frame of reference in phenomenology; procedures reported; study subjects; and central topic. These characteristics were extracted by the following procedures: 1) reading of titles; 2) reading of abstracts; 3) when the two previous procedures were insufficient to extract the information, reading of the methodological procedures section/chapter of the article; 4) reading and analysis of the list of bibliographical references; and 5) use of the search or find command when specific information was required.

Results
Table 2 summarises the main characteristics of the 19 studies included in this literature review. The studies examined were published between 2002 and 2024; only six 6 (31.6%) dated from the previous five years. Most of the studies (10; 52.6%) were published in the city of Salvador and other municipalities in the state of Bahia, followed by Curitiba, Paraná (n = 2; 10.5%), Florianópolis, Santa Catarina (n = 2; 10.5%), Brasília, Federal District (n = 1; 5.3%), Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (n = 1; 5.3%), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (n = 1; 5.3%), Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais (n = 1; 5.3%) and Fortaleza, Ceará (n = 1; 5.3%).
When the authorship of the 19 studies was examined, intentional selection bias was found to have occurred as a result of the inclusion criterion that studies be produced in the field of Nutrition with the participation of nutritionists. Accordingly, it is stressed that the authors of all the studies examined included nutritionists and that in only one was the lead author not a nutritionist. Of the 13 articles with collective authorship (two or more authors), in three, the nutritionist partnered with psychologists; in four, was co-author with doctors; and in one, the collaboration was multi-professional (Psychology, History and Letters) (data not reported in the tables).
As regards the studies’ objectives, Table 2 shows that, notwithstanding the singularity of the statements in each of them, the 19 studies investigated were unanimous on one point: they all used assertions characteristic of the qualitative research approach15, in that they employed words that seek to express the action of research or investigation as an act of comprehension, interpretation, description, analysis and/or thinking about perceptions, meanings, feelings, experiences, lived experience and meanings attributed by the study subjects to the research object.
As regards the theoretical phenomenological frame of reference applied in the 19 studies examined (Table 2), in most, the section describing methodological procedures was found not to state the study’s frame of reference explicitly. Nearly all, however, used a multi-referential approach (using more than one author).
Of the classical authors on Phenomenology, Hans-Georg Gadamer appeared most often, either in isolation or in association with some other theoretician (n = 6; 31.6%), followed by Alfred Schutz (n = 5; 26.3%), Martin Heidegger (n = 4; 21.0%), Paul Ricoeur (n = 2; 10.5%) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (n = 1; 5.3%). Edmund Husserl, considered the founder of Phenomenology19-23, was cited in only one of the studies examined, without however being considered a key theoretical source. Prominent among Brazilian authors was Maria Cecília de Souza Minayo, cited in 11 (57.9%) of the studies examined and, in three, as the key reference source for the analysis.
All the studies reviewed (n = 19; 100%), when reporting their data collection and analysis procedures (Table 2), mentioned using interviews with non-guiding or semi-structured scripts and recording and then transcribing the narratives in full, which are specific characteristics of research with a qualitative approach15.
Three studies reported using other procedures from ethnographic studies, such as direct observation, writing a field diary and analysing letters (correspondence).
As shown in Table 2, in keeping with the characteristics of research with qualitative approaches15, 63.2% (n = 12) of the studies investigated up to 10 subjects, with the number of individuals investigated ranging from one (a life history or case study) to a maximum of 13 interviewees. By gender, the subjects interviewed were primarily female (n = 15; 78.9%). Nearly all the interviewees in the studies were adults and/or older adults (n = 17; 89.5%), the remainder being adolescents and young adults (n = 2; 10.5%).
The central issue investigated in the 19 studies selected, as shown in Table 2, was found most often (n = 4; 21.0%) to be meanings, senses and perceptions of eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating), followed by perceptions of obesity (n = 3; 15,8%), the meanings of nutritional care for children and/or older adults (n = 3; 15.8%), the meanings of breastfeeding (n = 2; 10.5%), the essences of nutrition therapies for various different diseases and health conditions (n = 2; 10.5%) and the interpretation of hunger (n = 1; 5.3 %), healthy diet (n = 1; 5.3%), food production by family farming (n = 1; 5.3%), eating behaviour in response to death and mourning (n = 1; 5.3%) and perceptions of nutritionists’ work in primary health care (n = 1; 5.3%).

Discussion
Analysis of the 19 primary studies included in this literature review showed that it was in 2002 that Phenomenology first emerged as a methodological frame of reference for scientific production in the field of Nutrition in Brazil, with the publication of a pioneering study by Freitas, titled A Phenomenological Approach to Hunger (Uma Abordagem Fenomenológica da Fome)19. In that original study, Freitas reports the results of an ethnographic investigation of 10 families in a low-income neighbourhood of Salvador, Bahia, taking as her central analytical frame of reference the Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur. Hunger, the study object that Freitas19 sought to understand and interpret in the light of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics, continues to knock at the door of thousands of Brazilian families, as shown by recent research50 51. It can thus be said – to borrow one of the metaphors used by Freitas19 in her final remarks in order to understand the phenomenon of hunger in 2002 – that, for millions of Brazilians today, hunger continues to be “the entity, the thing, the ill wind that comes to haunt” (p. 67)50-51.
The second article on the timeline that marks out the trajectory of research with a phenomenological approach in the field of Nutrition in Brazil was not published until six years later (2008). The authors, Soares and Coelho32, ventured to “understand the experiences and meanings of childcare”, by analysing the narratives of home caregivers in the municipality of Caldas de Cipó, Bahia. The two authors, a nutritionist and a doctor, investigated the also sensible study object – child nutrition care – through the lens of the Ontological Phenomenology of Martin Heidegger52 and the Brazilian sociologist, Maria Cecília de Souza Minayo53. As already mentioned in the Results section, Minayo is the author of reference for qualitative research and the phenomenological approach in 57.9% (11) of the studies examined32,35,36,39,47 49, showing her work’s influence in the field of Nutrition.
The six-year time gap between the pioneering study by Freitas19 and the second article, by Soares and Coelho32, cannot be explained as a lack of research being done on the subject in that period. Methodological limitations in the study search and selection procedures may have contributed to non-inclusion of articles from 2003 to 2007. Examples would be the exclusion of scientific production in book form and in articles with methodological theory approaches, such as the 2003 book, Agony of Hunger (Agonia da Fome), by Freitas54, and the theoretical essay by Poulain and Proença55, also published in 2003, in which they pointed to the importance of Phenomenology in the field of Nutrition in Brazil.
From 2009 until 2024, publications with phenomenological approaches in the field of Nutrition in Brazil came to appear almost annually. Although mostly concentrated in Salvador, Bahia, and having as their point of reference the nutritionist Freitas19,35,39,41,43,48, qualitative research with a phenomenological approach spread through other states of Brazil, including the Federal District (Brasília)47, Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte)44, Paraná (Curitiba)46, Santa Catarina (Florianópolis)34,42, Minas Gerais (Ouro Preto)45, Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro) 40 and Ceará (Fortaleza)36. These results, although denoting a positive process in which a broader range of researchers was being attracted to qualitative research approaches (with the emphasis on Phenomenology as a frame of reference) – when compared to the total of 30 academic masters courses and 18 doctoral courses coordinated by the CAPES in its Nutrition assessment area56 and distributed throughout nearly all Brazil’s states – themselves express the asymmetry existing between quantitative and qualitative research in Brazil (a topic addressed in previous studies15-16).
As regards specific currents in the field of Phenomenology with which the authors of the 19 studies were affiliated or identified, the studies – as already mentioned in the Results section – rarely stated explicitly the philosophical and/or methodological presuppositions guiding investigation. The studies reviewed mostly used multi-referential approaches. The frames of reference most often used were the Philosophical Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Gadamer36,39,40,43,47,49 and the Sociological Phenomenology of Schutz37,41,45,46,48, followed by Heidegger32,43,44,47, Ricoeur19,35 and Merleau-Ponty33. Note that these results are close to those found in the literature review by Silva et al. (2022)23, which examined 600 dissertations and theses that had used phenomenological approaches, produced between 1990 and 2022 in the field of Nursing in Brazil. That review found a predominance of references to Heidegger (n = 222), followed by Schutz (n = 194), Merleau-Ponty (n = 89) and Paul Ricoeur (n = 12). On the other hand, it is strange that the list in Silva et al. (2022)23 includes no studies framed by Gadamer, the author most often deployed in the field of Nutrition36,39,40,43,47,49. It is to be emphasised that, as mentioned earlier, this and other studies have shown that, in Brazil, Nursing stands out among health science fields in production of qualitative research, particularly using phenomenological frames of reference22-23.
As regards the phenomena studied or the study objects of the 19 articles reviewed in the field of qualitative research in Nutrition, with emphasis on frames of reference from Phenomenology, researchers were found to have explored issues that constitute the field’s current paradigms, both in the world context and in Brazil4-14. From hunger19 to obesity39,43,49, the need to understand the meanings of nutrition care for priority groups, such as children and older adults32,37,38,47,48, focusing on the complex task of investigating the meanings attributed to relations with food developed in the very different experiences of living with eating disorders33,34,40,42, through to early attempts to investigate the meanings of food sustainability alternatives and practices41,45, the central issues investigated seemed to dialogue with present-day dilemmas and paradigms (on the philosophical perspective of Thomas Khun57) of the Nutrition field in its world context4-14.
The phenomenon of obesity, a complex, multi-cause disease that affects a large population contingent, both in Brazil and worldwide, and all age groups indiscriminately, with no distinction by sex, race/colour or socioeconomic class58, was the object investigated by at least three of the studies included in the review39,43,49. These three studies, drawing on the Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Gadamer19-23, sought to understand and interpret the meanings that the individuals investigated attributed to their obese bodies, weights and body shapes, their habitual and present bodies, their experienced and actual bodies. That is, in-depth analysis of the study participants’ interviews sought to give due value to the language expressed in mediating between the meanings of the real world and the subjectivity of whoever was experiencing the stigmatised daily experience of an obese body. These three studies32,33,34 and others identified in the literature in various fields of knowledge59-60 showed the importance, appropriateness and relevance of investigating obesity on more than the quantitative, biological and epidemiological view that is the hegemonic methodological procedure observed in the field of Nutrition in Brazil9-12,15-16.
Four of the studies reviewed33,34,40,42 ventured to apply the phenomenological method19 23 to investigating the meanings attributed to relations with food developed in the different life experiences of individuals with eating disorders. The Phenomenology of Perception of Merleau-Ponty19-23 – a philosopher who argued that consciousness was a result of body perception and that the human body (the field constitutive of the senses) was, simultaneously, an object of knowledge and a manifestation of subjectivity – was the main methodological reference used in a study that sought to describe the body experience of eight 16 to 26 year old women with anorexia nervosa, as well as seeking to understand the meanings attributed to the bodily practices of restriction and purging developed in this kind of eating disorder33. Bosi & Teixeira (2016)40, drawing on unguided interviews and free observation of 12 women from 18 to 55 years old with morbid obesity (a body mass index of more than 40 kg/m2), sought to demarcate the problems of periodic binge eating disorder. From the life experience reported by the interviewees, it illustrated the multidimensionality of eating behaviour disorders. They reported being guided by Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology approach19-23, although they also referred to using Brazilian researchers, including Mauro Martins Amatuzzi, author of Psicologia fenomenológica: uma aproximação teórica humanista20. Meanwhile, Nunes & Vasconcelos (2010)34 and Petry & Vasconcelos (2017)43 used multi-referential phenomenological approaches to understanding the perceptions, meanings and feelings of the complex relationship that adolescent and young adult women develop with food in the anorexia nervosa and bulimia eating disorders. Nunes & Vasconcelos (2010)34 endeavoured to grasp the essence of the narratives of seven female adolescents from 17 to 20 years old, by reference to Heidegger’s Ontological Phenomenology19-23,52, although also supported by the methodological procedures of Amadeo Giorgi’s Descriptive Phenomenology34, as well as Brazilian researchers connected with the field of Phenomenological Psychology20-21. In the same direction, Petry & Vasconcelos (2017)43 sought to understand the feelings and perceptions of three women from 21 to 24 years old during the process of recuperation from phenomena of anorexia nervosa, using the phenomenological methodological research procedures proposed by Amatuzzi20.
In summary, as seen in the preceding section, the manner of stating the objectives, the data collection and analysis procedures and the characteristics of the participants investigated (number, sex, age, socioeconomic position) reveal a pattern characteristic of research with a qualitative approach as indicated by compendia of research methodologies53,61-62. A previous study15 noted that, by sharing the same scientific paradigms and habitus, researchers in this specific subfield (qualitative research in Nutrition) have created the symbolic conditions that may make it possible to recognise the identity standard of a scientific community1,57.
In addition to the methodological limitations mentioned earlier, it must be stressed that this review was not intended to examine the merits, rigour and/or methodological quality, nor the findings, of the studies included, but rather its scope was limited to an exploratory description of their basic bibliographical or bibliometric characteristics, in order to understand qualitative research with a phenomenological approach conducted in the field of Nutrition in Brazil. Accordingly, an analysis of the quality or rigour of the methodological procedures used by the studies included, to indicate their potential and limitations, is yet to come.

Conclusion
Qualitative research with a phenomenological approach emerged in the field of Nutrition in Brazil early in the twenty-first century. Characterisation of the scientific production reviewed here revealed that, in the 22 years separating publication of the first (2002) and the last (2024) articles included in the literature review, studies on the subject in Brazil have expanded slightly in number, but continue concentrated in their scientific community of origin, in Salvador, Bahia, led by the nutritionist, Maria do Carmo Soares de Freitas. In that respect, the expectation is that this kind of methodological approach may expand in Brazil in coming years, to involve a larger number of researchers on various postgraduate programmes in Nutrition.
The study objects addressed (the phenomena investigated) in the studies reviewed here (hunger, obesity, eating disorders, breastfeeding, healthy diet and so on) are characteristically complex, sensitive, multidimensional issues, which make up the complex and paradoxical epidemiological scenario of nutrition in Brazil. They are phenomenon that form part of the daily lives and experiences of millions of Brazilians. Accordingly, they a can be investigated not only by (quantitative) epidemiological methods, but also by (qualitative) phenomenological methods – a set of procedures that seek to understand phenomena by investigating them in depth beyond their appearances.
In that regard, research with a phenomenological approach is understood here to be a strategy complementary to those of studies with epidemiological, clinical and experimental approaches, which can contribute to solving the complex dilemmas and paradigms of nutrition in Brazil.
The authors who have framed the methodological procedures of the studies reviewed here include, most prominently and in order of frequency, Gadamer, Schutz, Heidegger, Ricoeur and Merleau-Ponty. The use of these five leading, classic authors and the others referred to indicates that researchers in the field of qualitative research with a phenomenological approach in Nutrition have sought to bring greater refinement, consistency and quality to their studies. In that light, further studies should be conducted in this field and should examine, among other things, the quality or rigour of the methodological procedures used by the studies included, so as to indicate their potentials and limitations.
In short, qualitative research with a phenomenological approach in Nutrition continues to reveal itself to be an important, alluring and promising field of study, which can contribute concurrently, alternatively and/or complementarily to the investigation and solution of Brazil’s nutrition problems (phenomena). This literature review may perhaps prompt an increase in qualitative research with a phenomenological approach on postgraduate programmes in Nutrition in Brazil.

Funding
The author holds a research productivity grant (1C) from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – CNPq (CNPq Process No. 303817/2023-2).

References
1. Brasil. Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Sobre as áreas de avaliação. Brasília: CAPES, 2024. [cited 2024 Ago 29]. Available from: https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/acoes-e-programas/avaliacao/sobre-a-avaliacao/areas-avaliacao/sobre-as-areas-de-avaliacao/sobre-as-areas-de-avaliacao
2. Bourdieu P. O Poder Simbólico. Lisboa: Edições 70, 2021. 460p.
3. Brasil. Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). Árvore do conhecimento. Brasília: CNPq, 2024. [cited 2024 Ago 29]. Available from: https://lattes.cnpq.br/web/dgp/ciencias-da-saude
4. Mozaffarian D, Rosenberg I, Uauy R. History of modern nutrition science—implications for current research, dietary guidelines, and food policy. BMJ. 2018; 361:k2392.
5. Shen X, Tang W, Yu Z, Cai W. The history and development of registered dietitian accreditation systems in China and other comparable countries. Nutr Res. 2019; 70:11-17.
6. Popkin BM, Ng SW. The nutrition transition to a stage of high obesity and noncommunicable disease prevalence dominated by ultra‐processed foods is not inevitable. Obes Rev. 2022; 23(1):e13366.
7. Brauer P, Bull J, Nieuwhof K, Kirsh AJ, Dietrich L, Simpson JR, Wyatt M. What Practice Issues Over 25 Years Most Interest Registered Dietitians? Survey and Interview Results. Can J Diet Pract Res. 2022; 83(2):81–85.
8. Vasconcelos FAG. A ciência da nutrição em trânsito: da nutrição e dietética à nutrigenômica. Rev Nutr. 2010;23(6):935–45.
9. Vasconcelos FAG, Batista Filho M. História do campo da Alimentação e Nutrição em Saúde Coletiva no Brasil. Cien Saude Colet 2011; 16 (1):81-90.
10. Freitas MCS, Minayo MCS, Fontes GAV. Sobre o campo da Alimentação e Nutrição na perspectiva das teorias compreensivas. Cien Saude Colet 2011; 16(1), 31-38.
11. Prado SD, Bosi MLM, Carvalho MCDVS, Gugelmin SA, Silva JK, Delmaschio KL. A pesquisa sobre Alimentação no Brasil: sustentando a autonomia do campo Alimentação e Nutrição. Cien Saude Colet 2011; 16, 107-119.
12. Amaral MN, Klanovicz, J. A Interdisciplinaridade entre as Ciências Nutricionais e Ambientais: uma análise curricular nos Cursos de Graduação em Nutrição do Brasil. Revista Transmutare, 2023; 9:1-19.
13. Santos SMC, Ramos FP, Medeiros MAT, Mata MM, Vasconcelos FAG. (2021). Avanços e desafios nos 20 anos da Política Nacional de Alimentação e Nutrição. Cad Saúde Pública, 2021; 37(Suppl 1): e00150220.
14. Azevedo LB, Jesus TR, Reis EC. Tendência temporal da inserção de nutricionistas no Sistema Único de Saúde segundo regiões do Brasil no período de 2009 a 2018. O Mundo da Saúde, 2021; 45(s/n), 024-033.
15. Vasconcelos FAG. A pesquisa qualitativa nos programas de pós-graduação em nutrição no Brasil: análise das dissertações e teses. Demetra. 2013; 8(Suppl. 1):329-48.
16. Vasconcelos FAG. The construction of scientific knowledge in Food and Nutrition: Analysis of dissertations and theses in the Brazilian post-graduation programs in Nutrition. Rev Nutr 2015;28(1):5–16.
17. Brasil. Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Documento orientador de Preenchimento da Plataforma Sucupira Avaliação Quadrienal 2025. ÁREA 50: Nutrição. Brasília: CAPES. 2024. [cited 2024 nov 22]. Available from: https://www.gov.br/capes/pt-br/centrais-de-conteudo/documentos/avaliacao/04032024_DocumentoorientadordepreenchimentodaPlataformaSucupiraDAV.pdf
18. Canesqui AM. Pesquisas qualitativas em nutrição e alimentação Rev Nutr. 2009;22(1):125–39.
19. Freitas MCS. Uma abordagem fenomenológica da fome. Rev Nutr. 2002;15(1):53–69.
20. Amatuzzi MM. Psicologia fenomenológica: uma aproximação teórica humanista. Estud psicol 2009;26(1):93–100.
21. Andrade CC, Holanda AF. Apontamentos sobre pesquisa qualitativa e pesquisa empírico fenomenológica. Estud psicol. 2010;27(2):259–68.
22. Silva RV, Oliveira WF. O método fenomenológico nas pesquisas em saúde no Brasil: Uma análise de produção científica. Trab educ saúde. 2018;16(3):1421–41.
23. Silva BN, Silva VGF, Silva GTR, Motta MGC, Souza NL, Pinto ESG. The use of phenomenological frameworks in Brazilian nursing research at the stricto sensu level: an overview. Rev Gaúcha Enferm 2022;43:e20220150.
24. Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Ciência, Tecnologia e Insumos Estratégicos. Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia. Diretrizes Metodológicas. Elaboração de revisões sistemáticas e metanálise de estudos de acurácia diagnóstica. Brasília: Editora do Ministério da Saúde, 2014. [cited 2024 Ago 29]. Available from: https://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/diretrizes_metodologicas_estudos_acuracia_diagnostica.pdf.
25. Galvão TF, Pereira MG. Revisões sistemáticas da literatura: passos para sua elaboração. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde. 2014; 23(1): 183-184.
26. Galvão MBC, Ricarte ILM. Revisão Sistemática da Literatura: Conceituação, produção e publicação. Logeion: Filosofia da informação. 2019; 6(1):57-73.
27. Teixeira EP, Lynn FA, Souza ML. A guide for systematic reviews of observational studies. Texto contexto - enferm. 2024;33:e20230221.
28. Ratusniak C, Panassolo JB. O fracasso escolar em alunas: esforçadas, dedicadas, caprichosas. E inteligentes?. Rev Psicol Pesq, 2024. 18(1):1-32.
29. Stroher JN, Henckes SBR, Gewehr D, Strohschoen AAG. Estratégias pedagógicas inovadoras compreendidas como metodologias ativas. Rev Thema, 2018; 15(2):734–747.
30. Vieira-Santos J, Del Prette ZAP. Del Prette A. Habilidades sociais educativas: revisão sistemática da produção brasileira. Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana, 2018; 36(1), 45-63.
31. Silva IP. Em busca de significados para a expressão “ideologia de gênero”. Educ rev. 2018;34:e190810.
32. Soares MD, Coelho TCB. O cotidiano do cuidado infantil em comunidades rurais do Estado da Bahia: uma abordagem qualitativa. Rev Bras Saude Mater Infant. 2008;8(4):463–72.
33. Giordani RCF. O corpo sentido e os sentidos do corpo anoréxico. Rev Nutr. 2009;22(6):809–21.
34. Nunes AL, Vasconcelos FAG. Transtornos alimentares na visão de meninas adolescentes de Florianópolis: uma abordagem fenomenológica. Ciênc saúde coletiva. 2010;15(2):539–50.
35. Lima CMC, Jesus RP, Freitas MCS, Oliveira LPM. Reflexões sobre o adoecer e mudanças dietéticas durante a assistência nutricional em pacientes com hepatite C. Physis. 2011;21(2):647–62.
36. Rodrigues DCM. O lugar do nutricionista nos núcleos de apoio à saúde de Fortaleza: desenhos iniciais. 2012. 225 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Saúde Pública) – Universidade Federal do Ceará. Faculdade de Medicina, Fortaleza, 2012.
37. Demétrio F, Silva MCM, Chaves SMS, Assis AMO. Meanings attributed to breastfeeding in the first two years of life: a study with women from two municipalities in the Recôncavo Baiano region of Bahia, Brazil. Rev Nutr. 2013;26(1):5–16.
38. Soares MD, Trad LAB. Os sentidos de riscos atribuídos à alimentação entre cuidadores domésticos. Physis. 2014;24(1):165–81.
39. Araújo KL, Pena PGL, Freitas MCS, Diez-Garcia RW. Estigma do nutricionista com obesidade no mundo do trabalho. Rev Nutr. 2015;28(6):569–79.
40. Bosi MLM, Teixeira MJ. Binge eating under a complex reading: Subsidies for the praxis of food and nutrition education. Rev Nutr. 2016;29(6):899–915.
41. Passos JA, Freitas MCS, Santos LAS, Soares MD. Significados atribuídos à alimentação saudável por consumidores de uma feira livre. Rev. Nutr. 2017;30(2):261-270.
42. Petry N, Vasconcelos FAG, Costa LCF. Feelings and perceptions of women recovering from anorexia nervosa regarding their eating behavior. Cad Saúde Pública. 2017;33(9):e00048716.
43. Araújo KL, Freitas, MCS, Pena PGL. O olhar do outro sobre a obesidade: uma aprendizagem sobre a rejeição. Linhas Críticas, 2018;24: e18958.
44. Campos MTFS, Peluzio MCG, Melo MSS, Simonini E, Coelho FMG, Araújo RMA. “A mesa que encolheu”: a perspectiva alimentar das mães que perderam filhos. Ciênc saúde colet. 2020;25(3):1051–60.
45. Venturi AC. A sucessão na agricultura familiar em São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo-MG a partir da vivência/percepção dos agricultores e possíveis sucessores. [Dissertação]. Ouro Preto, MG: Mestrado em Saúde e Nutrição, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, 2019.
46. Rezende IBD. Sobre outras formas de ser alimentado: significados do uso de sonda enteral em domicílio. [Dissertação]. (mestrado) - Curitiba, PR: Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Alimentação e Nutrição, 2021.
47. Camandaroba CP. Significados do cuidado alimentar e nutricional de idosos em alimentação oral: um estudo de caso na pandemia COVID-19 em instituições de longa permanência do Distrito Federal. [Dissertação]. Brasília: Mestrado em Políticas Públicas em Saúde, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 2022.
48. Souza NFD. Influência social nas práticas alimentares do binômio mãe - filho nos primeiros seis meses de vida: estudo de caso em uma capital nordestina. [Dissertação]. Salvador, BA: Universidade Federal da Bahia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Alimentos, Nutrição e Saúde, 2022.
49. Araújo KL, Freitas MCS, Pena PGL. Cuidado de si e sentidos de obesidade por profissionais de saúde. RACA, 2024;4(2), 141–156.
50. IBGE. PNAD Contínua - Segurança alimentar nos domicílios brasileiros volta a crescer em 2023. [internet] [cited 2024 set 03]. Available from: https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-noticias/2012-agencia-de-noticias/noticias/39838-seguranca-alimentar-nos-domicilios-brasileiros-volta-a-crescer-em-2023#:~:text = Destaques,Seguran%C3%A7a%20Alimentar%20da%20PNAD%20Cont%C3%ADnua.
51. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 – Financing to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. Rome: FAO, 2024. [cited 2024 set 03]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1254en.
52. Heidegger M. Ser e tempo. 10 ed. Petrópolis: Vozes; 2015.
53. Minayo MCS. O desafio do conhecimento: pesquisa qualitativa em saúde. 14 ed. São Paulo: Hucitec; 2014.
54. Freitas MCS. Agonia da Fome. 1 ed. Rio de Janeiro / Salvador: EDUFBA / Fiocruz, 2003. 281p.
55. Poulain JP, Proença RP da C. O espaço social alimentar: um instrumento para o estudo dos modelos alimentares. Rev Nutr. 2003;16(3):245–56.
56. Brasil. Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Cursos avaliados e reconhecidos. Área de Avaliação: Nutrição. [cited 2024 set 04]. Available from: https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/programas?area-avaliacao = 50.
57. Kuhn, TS. O caminho desde a estrutura. 2 ed. São Paulo: Editora UNESP, 2017. 414p.
58. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) (2024). Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults. Lancet, 403(10431), 1027–1050.
59. Braga VAS, Jesus MCP, Conz CA, Silva MH, Tavares RE, Merighi MAB. Actions of nurses toward obesity in primary health care units. Rev Bras Enferm. 2020;73(2):e20180404.
60. Menezes CFJ, Ferreira RLP, Mélo RS. “Imagina ela nua!”: Experiências de mulheres que se autodeclaram gordas. Rev Estud Fem. 2020;28(2):e60118.
61. Creswell JW. Projeto de pesquisa: métodos qualitativo, quantitativo e misto. 3a. ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed; 2010. 296 p.
62. Marconi MA, Lakatos EV. Metodologia Científica. 6. ed. São Paulo: Atlas; 2011.