Food Consumption and Nutritional Status of Urban Low Middle-Income Families

In the 1970s Green Revolution enabled India to become self-sufficient in food production, but poverty, low dietary intake and under-nutrition were high. India identified poor families on the basis of energy consumption, provided employment to these families to improve purchasing power, subsidized food grains through PDS to improve family food security and food supplementation through ICDS to children and women from poor families to bridge the gap in their dietary intake. Over years, there has been a decline in under-nutrition but rate of decline was slow. The country is currently having persistent high under-nutrition in children, rise in over-nutrition in adults and increasing intra-family differences in nutritional status. A study was taken up in 547 urban low middle-income families with dual nutrition burden, to assess the current food and macronutrient consumption and food security status of the families and the nutritional status of the individual family members. The average energy intake of these families was 1900 Kcal. This was lower than the EAR for reference population (2110 Kcal/day) but higher by 140 Kcal when compared to the EAR for average Indian population (1760 Kcal/day). In pre-school and school-age children stunting rates were high but wasting and over-nutrition rates were low. Over-nutrition rates in adults were high perhaps due to higher energy intake as compared to the requirements for the short-statured sedentary adults. In view of these findings, it may be useful to explore a dual approach: programmes aimed at improving household food security continue to focus on families; while programmes aimed at improving nutritional status focus on anthropometric screening of individual members (children and adults) for early identification of under-or over-nutrition, appropriate management and monitoring improvement.