When this view is directed at women and dependence is confirmed, peculiarities are evidenced, linked to the differences between the female and male universes, of extreme importance for treatment success. Socially speaking, the woman's role is generally that of family caregiver, she transforms food into meal, as a care instrument. The feeding moment is an opportunity to exchange and strengthen important relationships for human beings, because "the subjectivity transmitted through feeding practices includes the cultural identity, social condition, religion, family memory and age" (13) . Additionally, there are organic differences between women and men that explain the prevalence of hepatic damage in women (14) .Perceiving that alcoholism, as a social consequence, causes the interruption of family relationships and induces the reduction of the user's daily practices, including those related to feeding (15) , the use of lunchtime as a therapeutic moment was This study aimed to recover feeding and its meaning in the improvement of quality of life. As a facilitator in the teaching-learning process, it gave an opportunity for health education to occur outside the conventional pattern. For the educator, it is important to find spaces (s)he can use to provide for learning that changes the learner's thinking in a pleasant way because, when this happens, a stimulus to learn even more also occurs, that is, the reflection and construction of new behaviors, the education processes itself (18) .
OBJECTIVEThis research aimed to study and discuss the lunch experience as a therapeutic moment, presenting theoretical assumptions, strategies and immediate results.
METHODOLOGYThe strategy employed for the educative intervention was lunch time and group discussion, A total number of 12 group meetings was established, over a six-week period, at the institution, during two hours and coordinated by the researcher.To preserve the participants' identities, they received names of flowers.For data collection, a recorder was used, positioned in the middle of the lunch table. Two observers were present, one of whom was the group researcher/coordinator herself.The study participants and their family members were informed about the nature of the study and its procedures and signed the free and informed consent term. Some preliminary analyses of the collected material were made to categorize data around the verbalized and gestural content during and after lunch. The construction of data categories followed two criteria. Some of them were selected a priori due to relevant topics in literature. Others emerged from the data collection and were therefore collected a posteriori (19) . The analysis of the verbalized and gestural content during and after lunch provided seven categories: the ambience as a facilitator;sharing the food -becoming a companion; expansion of food perception; food and its meanings; sexuality; relapse; depression x motivation.