Possible versus desired diets: food legislation as additional stress for low-income mothers

Deciding what, where, when and how much to feed a child occupies much of a mother's time, energy, and financial resources. This study aids our understanding of the effects of legislation promoting healthier eating on mothers from low socioeconomic groups and on their families. We interview mothers and nutrition experts in Santiago, Chile - the site of the most recent and comprehensive effort to change a population's food habits via legislation. We introduce the notions of 'desired diets' - ideal diets promoted by health experts and public policy discourses that moralise food consumption and promote consumer responsibilisation for health-related issues; and 'possible diets' - diets that mothers can adapt to and habituate in the household, considering their life realities. We argue that the notions of possible and desired diets often find themselves at odds, leading to mothers facing moral scrutiny, anxiety, and stress, which affects their sense of self, shaping notions of 'good mothering'.