[Quantity, quality, harmony and adaption: the guiding principles of a society without hunger in Josué de Castro]

This article analyzes the links between the biological and social spheres established by Josué de Castro in his studies of alimentation. First it looks at how the author introduced modem dietary principles at the same time that hunger and malnutrition were unveiled in parts of Brazil, aiming at the configuration of a national alimentation policy. Second, at it examines how he expanded the debate, giving visibility to the dynamics of states and the political direction of a world that was being dismantled in which hunger and alimentation were an intrinsic part of the spatial distribution of power. In the postwar scenario the dietary principles of quantity, quality, harmony and adequacy were transposed as the guiding principles for a society without hunger at the global scale.