India / Very little greens on rural India's plate

Lack of proper diet has resulted in stunted, wasted kids

Rural India's food palate is far from green.

A survey of food consumption and nutritinal status of the rural population carried out by National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau in nine states has found that intake of green leafy vegetables, milk and milk products is greatly lacking.

While the recommended intake of green leafy vegetables is set at 40 grams per day per person, rural Kerala consumes just 7 grams, Karnataka 6 grams, Maharashtra 10 grams, Gujrat 9 grams and Madhyapradesh 15 grams.

Strangely Orissa and West Bengal - known to be predominantly fish eating states - are only ones to consume the stipulated intake of 40 grams of greens.

On the other hand, while the recomended intake of milk and milk products is set at 150 grams per day per person, the survey found that the national average was just 82 grams. Orissa consumes 14 grams of milk and milk products, West Bengal 49 grams, MP 59 grams and Maharashtra 77 grams.

Only Gujrat crossed the threshold of 170 grams, while Andhrapradesh and Tamilnadu consumed 112 and 102 respectively.

This explains another finding of the story - 70% of young children and 30% of adults have far lesser diatary energy than required. Over 55% of the kids surveyed were found to be underweight, 52% stunted and 15% wasted.

Results of the two year survey, which started in 2004, will be made public on December 18. NNMB undertook diet surveys and anthrpometric measurement on 11,722 men and 13,520 women in nine states.

This shortage of intake of leafy vegetables and milk explains why the levels of iron, vitamin A, riboflavin and folic acid, which are vital to good health, were found to be grossly inadequate among rural poors.

The survey also made some other observations - 30% of men and 77% of womwn suffered from abdominal obesity, with worst affected state being Kerala. Nearly 9% of men were overweight, while the number stood at 12.7% for women. Keral also recorded the highest number of people suffering from hypertension - 51% of men and 41% women.

Source: TOI