This paper explores the methodological challenges in obtaining accurate and reliable data around food and dietary behaviors, especially among women and when combined with social distance between researcher and “subject”. Content of this paper is based on a working chapter of my dissertation, titled, Women in the Making of Communitybased Food Policy: Implications for Latina Health, Citizenship, and Social Capital. I utilize data on food and diet to assess the severity of food insecurity among Latinas in an urban area of Southern California and to observe coping strategies in response to inadequate access to food. I evaluate different approaches to obtaining this type of data while also deconstructing the notion of research “subject” in what may be interpreted as a very invasive, and thus highly precarious research context. Moreover, I reflect on how my own positionality (as a white, middle‐class female associated with the academy) affects and/or obscures which epistemes manifest from the research process. In conclusion, I describe my efforts to employ more participatory methodologies in studying community food security and diet as a means to overcoming some of the dilution of data that occurs in a traditional dietary research