Consuming Wellbeing and Happiness through Epicurean Ingestion

Purpose - This paper investigates the idea of eating for pleasure and its effect on consumer wellbeing. It will begin by introducing the concept of Food Well-Being (FWB) under the Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) agenda. Subsequently, it will provide detailed discussions on the concept of pleasure, under which, food practices involving epicurean pleasure, hedonic and eudaimonic consumption will be discussed.
Design/methodology/approach - This paper then takes a different approach to the usual qualitative methodologies by utilising an introspective analysis of the film- ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ where the consumption of food for pleasure was heavily practiced.
Findings – This paper presents the introspective voice of the lead author’s food consumption. It reveals a food consumption practice which followed an initial loss of taste, to alternative food consumption and finally slow food ingestion. The journey of her epicurean ingestion revealed pleasurable experiences that reflected a positive subjective well-being. This attitude of ingesting food and living for the moment, propelled the idea that food wellbeing is more about consumer happiness.
Originality - This paper is novel in its approach to utilise film introspection to probe the concept of FWB within TCR. Additionally, it reveals the transitioning moment of alternative food consumption that leads to pleasurable experience. It also reveals that a personal investment in cooking for self, restores taste and improves subjective well-being. Overall, it showcases how the appreciation of the sensations of food from its taste, as it was ingested gradually leads to the total experiential feeling embedded in food consumption.