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Our Bureau

Average intake of calories, protiens also down

New Delhi June 2 Contrary to common belief, Indians today are spending lesser on food according to the "Nutritional Intake in India in 2004-05", based on the seventh quinquennial survey on household consumer expenditure.

According to the survey, as a percentage of total expenditure, the amount spent on food by the Indian population dropped by 8.2 and 12.2 percentage points in rural and urban areas respectively.

The amount spent on food by Indian households in the urban and rural areas in 1993-94 was 42.5 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.

No. of Meals

The survey also suggested that the number of meals eaten at home by household members decreased by 0.57 per cent in the rural areas between 1993-94 and 2004-05. In urban areas, the drop was greater by 1.66 per cent over the last ten years.

The Indian rural population continued to draw the major share of their calorie (67.54 per cent) and protein (66.37 per cent) requirement from cereals, with their urban cousins showing a similar trend, with proteins at 56.16 per cent and calories at 56.08 per cent. However, the average intake of calories dropped by 106 kcal (4.9 per cent) from 2,153 kcal in 1993-94 to 2,047 kcal in 2004-05 in rural areas and by 51 kcal (2.5 per cent) from 2,071 kcal to 2,020 kcal in the urban areas.

The average intake of proteins also decreased from 60.2 gm to 57 gm in the rural areas between 1993-94 and 2004-05, while it remained stable at 57 gm in the urban areas.

The survey said there was a significant rise in per capita daily average intake of fat during the decade (1993-94 and 2004-05) in both rural and urban areas. It increased from 31.4 gm to 35.5 gm (13.1 per cent) in rural areas and from 42 gm to 47.5 gm (13 per cent) in the urban areas.

The results of the survey also revealed that on an average an Indian household had 3.93 consumer units in the rural areas and the average number of consumer unit in an urban household was 3.56 units.

The survey was carried out during the NSS 61st round (July, 2004-June 2005) by the National Sample Survey Organisation in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The survey was spread over 7,999 villages and 4,602 urban blocks covering 79,298 rural and 45,346 urban households respectively.

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