Diet and leishmaniasis in the Ecuadorian Amazon

In Ecuador's Amazon, Indigenous communities affected by leishmaniasis often modify their diets as part of their health-seeking practices. Drawing on qualitative research with sixty-eight participants from seven Indigenous groups, this study explores how and why patients' diets shift in pursuit of healing from leishmaniasis. Participants understand therapeutic diets holistically, including food recommendations, preparation methods, and social behaviors believed to influence disease progression. Across groups, dietary logics of therapeutic efficacy often reflect analogical reasoning, a form of relational ontology in which the qualities of foods are believed to act upon the body through correspondence rather than causality in the disease's symptoms. Therapeutic dieting operates not only as a health-seeking practice but also politically, as a mechanism of moral and social regulation within the space of (self-)care. This study invites medical practitioners working in Amazonian contexts to engage with non-physiological logics of healing efficacy to enhance culturally responsive care and patient well-being.