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Types of Food and Nutrient Intake in India: A Literature Review

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Abstract

Nowadays India is undergoing an impressive economic growth accompanied by a very slow decline, almost stagnation, in malnutrition levels. In developing countries, studies on dietary patterns and their relationship with nutritional status are scarce. Over the years some nutritional studies have been performed to explore different types of food consumed in various Indian regions, among different social samples. The aim of the present paper is to review and describe trends in food and nutrition intake patterns in the different states of India. The review was carried out in PubMed, using the advanced research criteria: [food* OR (“meal pattern*”) OR (“eating pattern*”)] AND (“nutrient intake”) AND India*. PubMed research gave back 84 results and out of these, 7 papers due to their focus on food intake and consumption levels in India have been included in this study. Food intake patterns showed that most of the Indians are vegetarians and that food items rich in micronutrients (pulses, other vegetables, fruits, nuts, oilseeds and animal foods) are generally consumed less frequently. Poor and monotonous cereals-based diet may promote inadequate nutrition intakes according to Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) standards.

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Contributions

MGV and AG: Designed the study; ECP, HP and CL: Wrote the manuscript; SB, CEG and EV: Retrieved and selected the literature; All authors contributed to results interpretation, read and approved the final manuscript. Dr. Dario Gregori, Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padua, Italy, will act as guarantor for this paper.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Source of Funding

This work is partially supported by an unrestricted grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General for Country Promotion, and from Prochild ONLUS (Italy).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ZETA Research Ltd, Trieste, Italy

    Maria Gabriella Vecchio & Simonetta Ballali

  2. College of Nursing, Lakeside Institute of Child Health, Lakeside Hospital, Bangalore, India

    Elizabeth Cherian Paramesh & Haralappa Paramesh

  3. Institute for Maternal and Child Health - IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy

    Claudia Loganes

  4. Department of Nutrition, University of Buenos Aires and Food and Diet Therapy Service, Acute General Hospital Juan A. Fernández, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Claudia Elena Gafare

  5. Department of Pediatrics, San Paolo Hospital and University of Milano, Milan, Italy

    Elvira Verduci

  6. Department of Otorhinolaryngology (ENT), Maulana Azad Medical College, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, 110002, India

    Achal Gulati

Authors
  1. Maria Gabriella Vecchio
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  2. Elizabeth Cherian Paramesh
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  3. Haralappa Paramesh
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  4. Claudia Loganes
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  5. Simonetta Ballali
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  6. Claudia Elena Gafare
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  7. Elvira Verduci
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  8. Achal Gulati
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Correspondence to Achal Gulati.

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Vecchio, M.G., Paramesh, E.C., Paramesh, H. et al. Types of Food and Nutrient Intake in India: A Literature Review. Indian J Pediatr 81 (Suppl 1), 17–22 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-014-1465-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-014-1465-9

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