Moving Forward, Looking Back: On the Frontlines of Dietary Shift in Rural Ecuador

Abstract

Within the broader context of the global nutritional transition, in this article we examine local dietary practices in the northern highlands of Ecuador drawing on ethnographic research. The results of this study demonstrate that the communities studied continue to prepare whole foods for the most part. However, processed foods are also desired and consumed in some households in the area. Finally, we discuss two discourses that motivate dietary choices in this region: nostalgia and cosmopolitanism.

Keywords

• Nutritional transition
• localized modernities
• northern highlands of Ecuador
• dietary diversity
• ethnography
• nutritional practices