Calorie Availability Research Articles

Supermarkets and food consumption patterns: The case of small towns in Kenya

This paper investigates the effect of supermarkets on food consumption patterns in urban Kenya using cross-sectional household survey data collected in 2012. To establish causality, we selected study sites that differ in their supermarket access, and employ instrumental variable techniques to allow for endogeneity of supermarket purchases. We find that supermarket purchases increase the consumption of processed foods at the expense of unprocessed foods. Supermarket purchases increase per capita calorie availability, which is linked to lower prices paid per calorie, particularly for processed foods. Our results imply that supermarkets contribute to dietary changes commonly associated with the nutrition transition. The effects on nutrient adequacy are less clear.

Consensus and Contention in the Food-Versus-Fuel Debate

This review discusses research on linkages between biofuels, agriculture, and food security. The literature indicates that biofuel expansion affects land use, puts pressure on food and feed markets, and modestly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers readily identify these outcomes, as well as the multitude of factors besides biofuels that have driven up food prices in recent years. However, precision in quantifying the extent of the impacts and in attributing effects to various drivers is elusive, resulting in a wide range of estimates. Nevertheless, the central tendency is that a food-versus-fuel trade-off is created through biofuel production from food crops, and the continued expansion of biofuel production increases food commodity prices, reduces the availability of calories, and increases malnourishment in developing countries. Higher food prices particularly reduce the poor's access to food, which has possible long-term, irreversible consequences for health, productivity, and well-being.

Importance of government policies and other influences in transforming global diets.

The Second International Conference on Nutrition, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, will take place in November 2014. In 1992, the First International Conference on Nutrition declared, "Hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable." Twenty-two years later, it is timely to revisit the state of global nutrition and examine the forces that have brought change to diets worldwide. Calorie availability has increased throughout the world, even in the least-developed countries, where per capita availability has grown by 10%. As a consequence, the proportion of undernourished people has fallen, yet obesity has emerged as a major public health concern, primarily in developed countries but also among the growing middle classes in middle- and low-income countries. Globally, the nutrition transition has been affected by increased intakes of livestock products, processed foods, and fast foods. These changes are most readily explained by economic growth, urbanization, and globalization. International trade and liberalization of investment have been the key policy drivers of dietary change.

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: What Role for Food Security in Bangladesh?

Summary Using a nationally representative survey from Bangladesh, we examine the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture, measured using the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and per capita calorie availability, dietary diversity, and adult body mass index (BMI). Accounting for potential endogeneity of empowerment, we find that increases in women’s empowerment are positively associated with calorie availability and dietary diversity at the household level. Overall, household wealth, education, and occupation are more important than women’s empowerment as determinants of adult nutritional status, although negative impacts of group membership and credit on male BMI suggest that intrahousehold trade-offs may exist.

Chinese Food Security and Climate Change: Agriculture Futures

Abstract Climate change is now affecting agriculture and food production in every country of the world. Here the authors present the IMPACT model results on yield, production, and net trade of major crops in China, and on daily calorie availability as an overall indicator of food security under climate change scenarios and socio-economic pathways in 2050. The obtained results show a relatively optimistic outlook on yield, production and trade toward 2050. The outcomes of calorie availability suggest that China will be able to maintain a level of at least 3,000 kilocalories per day through 2010 to 2050. Overall, Chinese agriculture is relatively resilient to climate change. It is unlikely that Chinese food security by 2050 will be compromised in the context of climate change. The major challenge to food security, however, will rise from increasing demand coupled with regional disparities in adaptive capacity to climate change.

The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models

Understanding the capacity of agricultural systems to feed the world population under climate change requires projecting future food demand. This article reviews demand modeling approaches from 10 global economic models participating in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). We compare food demand projections in 2050 for various regions and agricultural products under harmonized scenarios of socioeconomic development, climate change, and bioenergy expansion. In the reference scenario (SSP2), food demand increases by 59-98% between 2005 and 2050, slightly higher than the most recent FAO projection of 54% from 2005/2007. The range of results is large, in particular for animal calories (between 61% and 144%), caused by differences in demand systems specifications, and in income and price elasticities. The results are more sensitive to socioeconomic assumptions than to climate change or bioenergy scenarios. When considering a world with higher population and lower economic growth (SSP3), consumption per capita drops on average by 9% for crops and 18% for livestock. The maximum effect of climate change on calorie availability is -6% at the global level, and the effect of biofuel production on calorie availability is even smaller.

Links between Tenure Security and Food Security: Evidence from Ethiopia

The study uses five rounds of household panel data from Tigray, Ethiopia, collected in the period 1998–2010 to assess the impacts of a land registration and certification program that aimed to strengthen tenure security and how it has contributed to increased food availability and thus food security in this food-deficit region. Our first survey took place just a year before the intervention (the land certification program). Our panel data in combination with the “years of certificate ownership” variable allow us to assess the dynamic impacts on food (calorie) availability of strengthened tenure security. Anthropometric data also allow us to assess potential child nutrition impacts of the reform 8-12 years after its implementation. Results show that land certification appears to have contributed to enhanced calorie availability (calorie intake), and more so for female-headed households, either through enhanced land rental market participation or increased investment and productivity on owner-operated land. Results also show that members of households that accessed additional land through the land rental market had a significantly higher body mass index. Though results show that land rental market participation is enhancing production efficiency, high transaction costs in that market suggest there are still unrealized gains from trade. Thus, the recent restrictive regional land law that allows for only short-term rental contracts and does not allow more than 50 percent of land to be rented out may threaten future tenure security and may undermine the benefits from the existing tenure reform.

Open Defecation and Childhood Stunting in India: An Ecological Analysis of New Data from 112 Districts

Poor sanitation remains a major public health concern linked to several important health outcomes; emerging evidence indicates a link to childhood stunting. In India over half of the population defecates in the open; the prevalence of stunting remains very high. Recently published data on levels of stunting in 112 districts of India provide an opportunity to explore the relationship between levels of open defecation and stunting within this population. We conducted an ecological regression analysis to assess the association between the prevalence of open defecation and stunting after adjustment for potential confounding factors. Data from the 2011 HUNGaMA survey was used for the outcome of interest, stunting; data from the 2011 Indian Census for the same districts was used for the exposure of interest, open defecation. After adjustment for various potential confounding factors – including socio-economic status, maternal education and calorie availability – a 10 percent increase in open defecation was associated with a 0.7 percentage point increase in both stunting and severe stunting. Differences in open defecation can statistically account for 35 to 55 percent of the average difference in stunting between districts identified as low-performing and high-performing in the HUNGaMA data. In addition, using a Monte Carlo simulation, we explored the effect on statistical power of the common practice of dichotomizing continuous height data into binary stunting indicators. Our simulation showed that dichotomization of height sacrifices statistical power, suggesting that our estimate of the association between open defecation and stunting may be a lower bound. Whilst our analysis is ecological and therefore vulnerable to residual confounding, these findings use the most recently collected large-scale data from India to add to a growing body of suggestive evidence for an effect of poor sanitation on human growth. New intervention studies, currently underway, may shed more light on this important issue.

Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites

ObjectiveOffering calories on restaurant websites might be particularly important for consumer meal planning, but the availability of and ease of accessing this information are unknown.MethodsWe assessed websites for the top 100 U.S. chain restaurants to determine the availability of and ease of access to calorie information as well as website design characteristics. We also examined potential predictors of calorie availability and ease of access.ResultsEighty-two percent of restaurants provided calorie information on their websites; 25% presented calories on a mobile-formatted website. On average, calories could be accessed in 2.35±0.99 clicks. About half of sites (51.2%) linked to calorie information via the homepage. Fewer than half had a separate section identifying healthful options (46.3%), or utilized interactive meal planning tools (35.4%). Quick service/fast casual, larger restaurants, and those with less expensive entrées and lower revenue were more likely to make calorie information available. There were no predictors of ease of access.ConclusionCalorie information is both available and largely accessible on the websites of America’s leading restaurants. It is unclear whether consumer behavior is affected by the variability in the presentation of calorie information.

Seasonal price variability and the effective demand for nutrients: Evidence from cereals markets in Mali

A key outcome of the food policy reforms initiated in the 1980s in Mali was the liberalization of the cereals markets in order to stimulate agricultural production and reduce reliance on imported rice. These market reforms resulted in more variable food prices because grain prices were no longer fixed by the government but rather influenced by the seasonal pattern of production and availability, regional and international supply and demand conditions. Malian policy makers have often expressed their concerns about seasonal grain price variation in Mali. However, measurements of its immediate effects on households' effective demand for nutrients have been relatively scarce. This study uses panel data from a 2000-2001 household consumption survey undertaken in Bamako to estimate nutrient-income and price elasticities by season and for the entire year and examine the effects of intra-year price variation on nutrient demand. The study finds that real income has a statistically significant positive impact on the demand for calories, protein, calcium, vitamin A, and iron and that the income elasticities for calories (from 0.102 to 0.193) varies less across seasons than those for micronutrients (for example vitamin A from 0.492 to 0.725). During the lean season, a 10 percent increase in real incomes will improve calorie availability from staples and other foods by 1.36 and 3.36 percent, respectively. The pooled data results show that a 10 percent growth in real incomes will increase the demand for calories (+1.62 %), protein (+1.91%), calcium (+1.98%), vitamin A (+7.21%) and iron (+1.29%). The findings of this study have several implications for food policy design in Mali, and possibly for other Sahelian countries. The most striking result is that in the face of seasonal variations in the price of staples, Bamako households attempt to “defend” their calorie consumption by reducing the consumption of higher-cost but more nutrient -rich foods. Thus, the price fluctuations of staples can significantly affect the consumption of protein and micronutrients that the staples themselves do not contain. Measures to bring about more stability of the staple-food markets (regional trade policies, better infrastructure) would thus have impacts on nutrition and on the demands for other more nutrient-rich products well beyond the staple-foods. In other words, if you are interested in Vitamin A or iron consumption, the path to affect those most may be through the staple foods market, even though most Malian staples are not rich in those micronutrients.

Inescapable hunger? Energy cost accounting and the costs of digestion, pregnancy, and lactation

This paper adjusts reconstructions of per capita food consumption in England from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries by factoring in the energy costs of digestion, pregnancy, and lactation. Digestion costs arise because the body has difficulty digesting certain components of food. Incorporating digestion costs reduced the calories available per capita by 12.7 per cent in 1700 but only by 4.9 per cent in 1909 because of changes in diet. The energy costs of pregnancy and lactation were lower only reducing calorie consumption by 2.5 per cent. These adjustments suggest a more pessimistic level of calorie availability before the twentieth century.

English

Food insecurity is an overriding problem of most developing countries like Ethiopia, which requires empirical evidence pertinent to food security policy formulation and implementation. This paper investigates food security situation of households by surveying 260 farm households randomly and proportionately sampled from the major farming systems in Ethiopia. Households’ daily calorie availability and dietary diversity were measured to capture the diet quantity and quality dimensions of food security of households. A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model results of the two measures suggested that the mean daily calorie intake per adult equivalent and dietary diversity level of households were about 1871 kcal and 6.8, respectively, with significant differences in farming systems and household idiosyncratic characteristics. The univariate probit model results show that the likelihood of households to be food security was 42.3%, while their probability to have semi-diversified diet was 37.2%. However, food security status and dietary diversity status were weakly interdependent and their determinant factors were significantly different. The major contribution of this paper is that it employs econometric estimation of dietary diversity scores and status and measures their interactions with diet quantity scales and food security status at household level. Key words: Food security, dietary diversity, seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model, bivariate probit.

Reversal of Progress against Malnutrition in Egypt

ObjectiveTo assess trends and determinants of stunting, a monitoring indicator for economic and human development in Egypt, where marked economic and social changes have taken place.MethodsWHO global database, Food and Agriculture Organization Food balance sheet and World Bank indicators were used to describe trends in childhood growth, food availability and economic development.ResultsNeonatal, infant and under five mortality rates decreased between 1995 and 2010. Prematurity and congenital anomalies among children < 5 years of age increased (20% and 30% respectively). Stunting decreased from 35% to 20.3% between 1990 and 2003 and bounced back to 30.7% by 2010. Moreover, the onset of stunting is now earlier (< 6 month of age). Iron deficiency anemia increased from 30 to 60% and from 30 to 46% among preschool girls and boys respectively. Gross domestic product per capita increased and inflation rate decreased between 1990 and 2011. A reverse pattern occurred between 2003 and 2004.Daily calorie availability per capita did not change between 1995 and 2009 while calories from animal sources increased from 6.6% to 8.6%. Per capita protein from milk, eggs, poultry and pulses revealed a marked shortage compared to recommendations for 2–5 year old children.ConclusionStunting reflects the cumulative effects of inadequate food intake, poor health conditions and projects low levels of human development and economic growth.Congenital anomalies and prematurity may explain the early onset of stunting predicated by maternal poor health. Egypt, post Arab Spring, has a window of opportunity to reform its subsidy food and social programs to target improvement of maternal nutrition, strengthen breastfeeding and develop complementary feeding.

Women's Empowerment in Agriculture: What Role for Food Security in Bangladesh?

Women’s low status and persistent gender gaps in health and education in South Asia contribute to chronic child malnutrition (Smith et al. 2003) and food insecurity (von Grebmer et al. 2009), even as other determinants of food security, such as per capita incomes, have improved. This is particularly relevant for Bangladesh, where chronic food insecurity continues to be an important issue despite steady advances in food production. To be able to leverage agriculture as an engine of inclusive growth, there is a need to develop indicators for measuring women’s empowerment, examine its relationship to various food-security outcomes, and monitor the impact of interventions to empower women. Using nationally representative survey data from Bangladesh, we examine the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture and two measures of household food security: per adult equivalent calorie availability and dietary diversity. We use the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index to assess the extent of women’s empowerment in agriculture and instrumental variables techniques to correct for the potential endogeneity of empowerment. We find that the overall women’s empowerment score, the number of groups in which women actively participate, women’s control of assets, and a narrowing gap in empowerment between men and women within households are positively associated with calorie availability and dietary diversity.

Nutrition in theEnglish agricultural labourer's household over the course of the long nineteenth century

The welfare of agricultural labourers has recently received renewed interest in both establishing living standards for a baseline group over the long term, and assessing the energy available for increased physical labour in the eighteenth century. Disagreement persists. This article examines a key aspect of agricultural labourers' families' welfare: nutrient consumption. We utilize datasets of the diets of agricultural labourers' households for 1787–96, 1835–46, 1863, 1893, and 1912, to analyse the availability of calories and 11 key nutrients. Self‐provisioned foodstuffs are incorporated and adjustments are made for beer consumption. Deficiency is computed against household needs. The results corroborate the general levels of calorie availability identified in agricultural production accounts for the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and assess these as sufficient for productive agricultural labour. However, no improvement is found in the nutritional aspect of household welfare between 1787–96 and 1835–46, thus endorsing pessimistic views of living standards for this group over this time period. Gains were evident in the next half‐century, but these improvements were neither consistent nor dramatic and left a large minority of these households with nutrient deficiencies even in the twentieth century.

High fructose corn syrup and diabetes prevalence: A global perspective

The overall aim of this study was to evaluate, from a global and ecological perspective, the relationships between availability of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Using published resources, country-level estimates (n =43 countries) were obtained for: total sugar, HFCS and total calorie availability, obesity, two separate prevalence estimates for diabetes, prevalence estimate for impaired glucose tolerance and fasting plasma glucose. Pearson's correlations and partial correlations were conducted in order to explore associations between dietary availability and obesity and diabetes prevalence. Diabetes prevalence was 20% higher in countries with higher availability of HFCS compared to countries with low availability, and these differences were retained or strengthened after adjusting for country-level estimates of body mass index (BMI), population and gross domestic product (adjusted diabetes prevalence=8.0 vs. 6.7%, p=0.03; fasting plasma glucose=5.34 vs. 5.22 mmol/L, p=0.03) despite similarities in obesity and total sugar and calorie availability. These results suggest that countries with higher availability of HFCS have a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes independent of obesity.

Food availability and the rising obesity prevalence in Malaysia

It is estimated that more than 1.1 billion adults and 115 million children worldwide are overweight. In Malaysia, the second and third National Health and Morbidity Surveys in 1996 and 2006 respectively reported a three-fold increase in obesity prevalence among adults, surging from 4.4% to 14% over the 10-year period. Evidence of rising childhood obesity has also emerged. The aim of this article is to gather evidence from food availability data for an insight into population shifts in dietary patterns that may help explain the rising obesity in this country. The nutrition transition was delineated in conjunction with the epidemiologic transition in order to explain the convergence of dietary practices, and the high prevalence of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases worldwide. The Food Balance Sheets for Malaysia from 1967 to 2007 were used to provide estimates and trends for the availability of foods and calories. Evidence is generated that indicate at least two major upward shifts in the dietary patterns in Malaysia in the past 4 decades. These shifts have led to the rising availability of calories from animal products, and from sugar and sweeteners. These major dietary shifts, together with increased sedentariness, constitute core public health challenges faced in addressing the country's obesity and non- communicable diseases (NCD) conundrum.

More Lack in the World: The Complex Connection between Undernutrition and Climate Change

Vol. 119, No. 12 News | Science SelectionsOpen AccessMore Lack in the World: The Complex Connection between Undernutrition and Climate Changeis accompanied byClimate Change, Crop Yields, and Undernutrition: Development of a Model to Quantify the Impact of Climate Scenarios on Child Undernutrition Angela Spivey Angela Spivey Search for more papers by this author Published:1 December 2011https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.119-a524aAboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Anthropogenic climate change is projected to reduce cereal yields and food security and therefore to undermine future efforts to reduce child undernutrition. But models are needed to better measure the potential impacts of climate change on population health. Now researchers have developed a model to estimate future undernutrition attributable to climate change as a function of its impact on crop productivity [EHP 119(12):1817–1823; Lloyd et al.].Undernutrition is measured using criteria such as stunting (smaller-than-average height-for-age) and underweight (smaller-than-average weight-for-age). The researchers developed and validated the model using previously published data about past food availability, the prevalence of stunting, and gross domestic product. Then they used projections of future calorie availability under two climate change scenarios and a reference scenario of no climate change to estimate undernutrition among children under age 5 years in five regions of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in 2050.The model estimates that climate change will lead to an average relative increase in moderate stunting (height that is more than two standard deviations below the expected height-for-age) of 1–29%, depending on region, compared with a future without climate change. Climate change will have a greater impact on rates of severe stunting (height more than three standard deviations below the expected mean), which the authors estimate will increase by an average of 31–62%, depending on region.A Ugandan child scrapes out extra food from a cooking pot. Climate change is expected to undermine efforts against child undernutrition by reducing cereal yields and food security.© Mikkel Ostergaard/Panos PicturesClimate change is likely to affect undernutrition through a variety of means in addition to crop production, including impacts on infectious diseases in humans, plant pests and diseases, labor productivity, and water availability. One limitation of the current study is the difficulty in quantifying the impact of climate change in the face of uncertainty about how countries will develop and manage their food systems. The authors state that their current study illustrates the importance of the outcome used to predict impacts—undernourishment (lack of food) versus stunting, for instance, or moderate versus severe stunting have different implications for decision making and for population health.The study adds to the evidence suggesting that climate change is likely to increase future hunger and undernutrition even under optimistic assumptions of future emissions and economic growth. The study results suggest that to reduce and prevent future undernutrition, it is necessary to not only reduce emissions of greenhouse gases but also increase food access and improve socioeconomic conditions.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsRelated articlesClimate Change, Crop Yields, and Undernutrition: Development of a Model to Quantify the Impact of Climate Scenarios on Child UndernutritionAug 15, 2011, 12:00:00 AMEnvironmental Health Perspectives Vol. 119, No. 12 December 2011Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 December 2011Published in print1 December 2011 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Exceso de peso, aspectos económicos, políticos y sociales en el mundo: un análisis ecológico

This study analyzed prevalence rates for excess weight in adults based on body mass index (BMI) and the association with various demographic, socioeconomic, and political variables (democracy index). An ecological design was used, including a total of 105 countries, with BMI data from 2000 to 2006. Other variables were obtained by proximity to the year of nutritional status. The study used the World Health Organization (WHO) classification for BMI. Spearman correlation coefficients and multiple logistic regression models were used. In both genders, overweight and obesity were correlated with calorie availability and the human development index (HDI) and its component variables. As for the variables related to democracy, there was an inverse correlation with weight, stronger in men than women. In conclusion, better living conditions in countries were directly associated with higher rates of excess weight in the population, with different patterns according to gender.

Climate Change, Crop Yields, and Undernutrition: Development of a Model to Quantify the Impact of Climate Scenarios on Child Undernutrition

Background: Global climate change is anticipated to reduce future cereal yields and threaten food security, thus potentially increasing the risk of undernutrition. The causation of undernutrition is complex, and there is a need to develop models that better quantify the potential impacts of climate change on population health.Objectives: We developed a model for estimating future undernutrition that accounts for food and nonfood (socioeconomic) causes and can be linked to available regional scenario data. We estimated child stunting attributable to climate change in five regions in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in 2050.Methods: We used current national food availability and undernutrition data to parameterize and validate a global model, using a process-driven approach based on estimations of the physiological relationship between a lack of food and stunting. We estimated stunting in 2050 using published modeled national calorie availability under two climate scenarios and a reference scenario (no climate change).Results: We estimated that climate change will lead to a relative increase in moderate stunting of 1–29% in 2050 compared with a future without climate change. Climate change will have a greater impact on rates of severe stunting, which we estimated will increase by 23% (central SSA) to 62% (South Asia).Conclusions: Climate change is likely to impair future efforts to reduce child malnutrition in South Asia and SSA, even when economic growth is taken into account. Our model suggests that to reduce and prevent future undernutrition, it is necessary to both increase food access and improve socioeconomic conditions, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.