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In the field of studies of the Humanities and Social Sciences on Food, this manuscript problematizes the uses of dietary supplements as a sociocultural construction in the context of body practices. In the same way that the behavior of "eating" can be understood specifically from particular social groups in a given historical time, this essay discusses the relevance of the anthropological field for the analysis of the material and symbolic conditions of "taking" dietary supplements by practitioners of the fit culture. Thus, based on a narrative review, this manuscript aimed to analyze and discuss the emergence of the anthropological analysis to understand the relationships between body practices and dietary supplements, especially for professional health intervention. In general terms, this manuscript selected four arguments to support the theoretical and methodological potential of Anthropology for the health work profession regarding these products. In summary, this text considered that these substances intake reveals social experiences and practices that can be modulated, articulated, interpreted, and incorporated into the prescription or guidance in clinics or in the spaces of body practices. The study concludes that, due to the increase in the consumer market for these products, there is a need to defend a dialogical, affective, sensitive, integral, critical, reflective, emancipated professional intervention and, above all, human intervention on the supplementation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural meaning in a consumer society moves ceaselessly from one location to another. In the usual trajectory, cultural meaning moves first from the culturally constituted world to consumer goods and then from these goods to the individual consumer. Several instruments are responsible for this movement: advertising, the fashion system, and four consumption rituals. This article analyses the movement of cultural meaning theoretically, showing both where cultural meaning is resident in the contemporary North American consumer system and the means by which this meaning is transferred from one location in this system to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]