The great Indian calorie debate: Explaining rising undernourishment during India's rapid economic growth. (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Smith, Lisa C.
• Is Part Of: Food policy. Volume 50(2015)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 67
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: Undernourishment -- India -- Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys -- Food consumed away from home; Food supply -- Periodicals; Food security -- Periodicals; Food -- Quality -- Periodicals; Food Supply -- Periodicals; Alimentation -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 338.1905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2014.10.011
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-9192

Abstract

Highlights: India's consumption and expenditure surveys record falling calorie consumption. Yet poverty is declining and alternate sources indicate rising calorie consumption. Nutrition transition has brought increased consumption of food away from home. This food source is incompletely measured in India's surveys. Such mis-measurement helps explain the declining trend in calorie consumption. Abstract: The prevalence of undernourishment in India – the percent of people consuming insufficient calories to meet their energy requirements – has been rising steadily since the mid 1980s. Paradoxically, this period has been one of robust poverty reduction and rapid economic growth. The reasons for the apparent reductions in calorie consumption underlying increased undernourishment have been the subject of intense debate both within India and internationally. This paper critically reviews this debate, finding that is has taken place outside of the context of India's recent nutrition and epidemiological transitions, which appear to have brought with them increased, not decreased, food consumption. The debate has also taken place under the unchallenged assumption that the data on which the conflicting trends are based, collected as part of the country's Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCESs), are reliable. The paper provides supporting literature and empirical evidence that a probable key source of the calorie decline is incomplete collection of data on food consumed away from peoples' homes, which is widespread and rapidly increasing. Complete measurement of this food source in the HCESs of all developing countries is vital for accurate measurement of both undernourishment and poverty – and for resolving the Indian calorie debate.