Comportement alimentaire et obésité : place de la symbolique alimentaire

The symbolic dimension of food is a universally shared element that helps make food a major factor of sociocultural membership and differentiation, that has thus strongly interested generations of anthropologists and sociologists. Various symbolic aspects of food, in particular its affective and relational load, well known to the general public via some famous writings - as in the case of Proust's madeleine - have almost paradoxically not been published in scientific journals. This deficiency has undoubtedly contributed to maintain a majority approach centered on the nutritional composition of food, both in the prevention of nutritional diseases and in the current dietary practices. After an analytical presentation of the different symbolic dimensions of food, this article leads us to examine the implication of the food symbolism in the genesis of obesity. On the basis of the presentation of four significant clinical situations, it proposes axes of work to identify and act on this symbolic component in clinical practice. Thus, 50 years after Jean Trémolières, it allows to highlight again the importance of this subject for the medicine of obesity.