This study collects some elements to deepen the understanding of health and nutrition. Its epistemological dimension refers to the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur and the phenomenology, and seeks to interpret the phenomenon of hunger, which is felt and expressed by different individuals in their specific social contexts. The approach is based on an ethnographical study of hunger carried out in a poor district in Salvador, state of Bahia; objectively, this work emphasizes an approach to the understanding of the phenomenon of hunger, from the point of view of social actors who live under conditions of extreme poverty.
hunger; phenomenology of hunger; social values
