Diet as a challenge and a strategy: on the phenomenon of diet rationalisation in everyday life

Abstract

This article describes the diet catering service (delivering ready-made meals to customers’ homes or work in a selected period) as an example of rationalization and professionalization of diet. The article is based on the results of interviews conducted with 15 users of dietetic catering from Poland, conducted between 2021 and 2023. The aim of the interviews was to try to answer the question of what benefits the respondents derived from using dietetic catering in their everyday life. As the results of the analysis show, respondents try to live a healthy lifestyle, which they do not always succeed in doing. Outsourcing the preparation of meals to the specialized companies allows them to save time and receive well-balanced meals, at selected times of the day adapted to their rhythm of work. There is a compromise between meeting healthy eating norms and social norms relating to food consumption, both in terms of mealtimes, the number of meals per day as well as what is meant by a ‘proper lunch’.