This paper investigates the meanings attributed by patients to hepatitis C on disease and dietary treatment. To this end, we adopt the methodology of qualitative research in which the individual interacts with his narrative on the subject of study and the researchers carefully examine their statements. The meanings of the illness and changes in dietary habits and life of the patients were analyzed by obtaining in-depth interviews. By bringing the senses expressed about the disease, it creates the possibility of understanding cultural factors on diet, nutrition and dietetics - a challenge for health professionals and nutrition, which need to report their patients the need to follow dietary healthier, involving changes not always simple to perform. Habits and representations of the act of feeding are considered part of the cultural identity of the subject. This study is justified by the need to place greater interaction among professionals, students, patients and health so as to broaden the understanding of the phenomena that surround the experience of illness by patients. We conclude that outpatients with hepatitis C at the University Hospital in the city of Salvador and the professional can achieve the goals of nutritional advice, if they follow dialogic lines. Thus, there was compliance with dietary counseling without sudden breaks and suffering of patients.
Hepatitis C virus; quality study; feeding habits