Diets, Nutrition, and Poverty - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 325

Chapter 13
Diets, Nutrition,
and Poverty
Lessons from India
Raghav Gaiha1 , Raghbendra Jha, Vani
S. Kulkarni, and Nidhi Kaicker
Introduction
India is currently undergoing a rapid economic and demographic transformation char-
acterized by a sustained and rapid rise in average living standards—increase in GDP per
capita growth rates, decline in poverty, rising urbanization, and improvements in health
outcomes. A key feature of this transformation has been the change in the nature of the
Indian diet, driven partly by the integration of global markets and improvements in
communication.
According to FAOSTAT, dietary changes in the 1980s included a sharp rise in con-
sumption of both animal and vegetable products, with milk having the largest propor-
tional increase among animal products, and, rice, pulses (dried peas, beans, lentils,
chickpeas, etc.), wheat, spices, and oils constituting the largest increase among vegetable
products.2 During the 1990s, significant changes in the pattern of food consumption
included a marked increase in the consumption of animal products (especially animal
fats), and a relatively modest increase in consumption of vegetable products. Although
the consumption of wheat, starchy roots, vegetable oils, sugar and sweeteners, and fruits
increased, that of rice, pulses and other cereals declined. There was also a sharp increase
in potato consumption, given its predominance in energy-dense food products (e.g.,
fries and potato chips). A significant change was in the consumption of wheat due to
a move away from the traditional chapatti to more commercialized and westernized
bread products.3