National Food Consumption Patterns: Converging Trends and the Implications for Health

Worldwide, obesity almost tripled between 1975 and 2016 and is now prevalent in both rich and poor countries. Using annual food availability data produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) covering half a century in 118 countries, this article explores the diets that are central to the problem of obesity, identifying groups of countries with similar consumption patterns. Applying algorithms from the fuzzy clustering literature, five distinct consumption patterns are revealed whose dietary composition broadly corresponds to diets that we label ‘Western’, ‘Traditional’, ‘Mediterranean’, ‘Tropical’ and ‘Vegetarian’. Despite differences in dietary characteristics, all five share two common themes: rising total calories and declining healthiness, both of which are linked to the substitution of plant-based foods with food derived from animals. That the evidence points to a convergence on the ‘Western’ diet, the most obesogenic and least healthy of all the diets we consider, is a cause for concern. The key message is that in a future where people are predicted to live longer – but not necessarily healthier – lives, recent efforts to address the challenge are prescient, and as the results in the article imply, need to be heeded globally.     

Dietary patterns and body mass indices among adults in Korea: evidence from pseudo panel data

The debate over the association between dietary patterns and obesity has not been settled in the literature. Some studies suggest that there are significant differences in mean body mass index across dietary patterns whereas other studies refute that result. The objective of this study is to test whether dietary patterns have a significant effect on body mass index in Korean adults when controlling for calorie intake and several sociodemographic factors. We present new evidence derived from pseudo panel data created from a series of cross‐sections. Our results from the pseudo panel analysis show that some of the dietary patterns that were identified from the Korean adults’ food intake survey have a significant effect on body mass index. Specifically, males with the “beef and processed food” (P < 0.05), or “pork and alcohol” (P < 0.05) dietary pattern had significantly higher BMIs, whereas females with the “fast food” (P < 0.1) or “ramen and bakery” (P < 0.01) dietary pattern had higher BMI.     

Agricultural production and children's diets: evidence from rural Ethiopia

We study the relationship between pre‐school children's food consumption and household agricultural production. Using a large household survey from rural Ethiopia, we find that increasing household production diversity leads to considerable improvements in children's dietary diversity. However, we also document how this nonseparability of consumption and production does not hold for households that have access to food markets. These findings imply that nutrition‐sensitive agricultural interventions that push for market integration are likely to be more effective in reducing under‐nutrition than those promoting production diversity.     

收入增长、饮食结构转变与食物系统碳排放——来自中国6省住户调查数据的证据

目的 食物系统碳排放在全球碳排放中的比重已达到30%。聚焦居民收入增长对食物消费结构变化的影响及其带来的碳排放效应，从饮食结构视角考察居民收入增长导致的食物系统碳排放变动。方法 文章从微观视角运用EASI需求系统模型分析不同收入增长模式下食物系统碳排放的可能增长路径。结果 （1）收入增长会使碳排放密集型的牛羊肉等动物类食物的消费量快速增长；（2）在不考虑收入分布变化的收入增长10%～50%的情景下，人均食物系统碳排放的变动在-5.23%～13.99%，收入差距缩小和中等收入群体壮大的收入增长模式则会使排放进一步增加；（3）在收入增长幅度低于30%时，农业减排技术进步可以有效中和食物系统碳排放增长，反映出农业减排技术进步对于减缓食物系统碳排放的重要性和有限性。结论 有必要制定依靠农业减排技术创新为核心的综合减排策略，进一步促进饮食的健康和环境协同增效，引导居民的饮食结构向果蔬等植物类食物及“低畜肉，高禽、蛋、奶、水产品”的动物类饮食结构转变。     

Agricultural Commercialisation and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households

Commercialisation of smallholder agriculture is important for rural economic growth. While previous studies have analysed effects of commercialisation on productivity and income, implications for farm household nutrition have received much less attention. We evaluate the effects of commercialisation on household food security and dietary quality with a special focus on calorie and micronutrient consumption. We also examine transmission channels by looking at the role of income, gender, and possible substitution effects between the consumption of own-produced and purchased foods. The analysis uses survey data from farm households in Kenya and a control function approach. Generalised propensity scores are employed to estimate continuous treatment effects. Commercialisation significantly improves food security and dietary quality in terms of calorie, zinc and iron consumption. For vitamin A, effects are insignificant. Commercialisation contributes to higher incomes and increased nutrients from purchased foods, but it does not reduce the consumption of nutrients from own-produced foods. Enhancing market access is important not only for rural economic growth, but also for making smallholder agriculture more nutrition-sensitive.     

A Note on Evaluating Agricultural Policy in the Presence of Health Care Cost Externalities: Dairy Production Quotas and Coronary Heart Disease Costs

The purpose of this note is to illustrate that the health cost externalities related to food consumption are significant and can be large enough to have implications for the economic evaluation of agriculture and food policy. The individual dietary intake of fats can affect the probability of being afflicted with coronary eart disease (CHD). While fat consumption is primarily a private decision, much of the annual $7.4 billion cost of CHD in Canada is borne socially through publicly funded health care, disability and pension plans. This note calculates the per-unit disease cost externality from saturated fatty acid consumption in Canada to be $5.07 per kilogram of saturated fatty acid. To demonstrate the importance for policy analysis, the disease cost externality was incorporated in a conventional welfare analysis of dairy production quotas in Canada. The externality was large enough to make the restrictive production quotas no further from social optimum than the competitive equilibrium. The importance of the disease cost externality suggests much more research is needed to incorporate these and other health cost externalities into many types of agricultural policy analysis.     

Food Consumption Patterns and Nutrition in Urban Java Households: The Discriminatory Power of some Socioeconomic Variables

Food consumption patterns are undergoing substantial change in many countries as economic development proceeds. The trend is a move away from traditional cereals towards higher-value and higher-protein foods. Explaining such changes only in terms of traditional economic variables can lead to biased estimates of income effects and perhaps biased projections of food demand. Household survey data from Indonesia are used to measure the importance of several socioeconomic variables in explaining differences in household food consumption patterns and nutrition. Household expenditure and the level of women's education are shown to be the most influential in this explanation.     

Poverty,food intake,and malnutrition: implications for food security in developing countries

The relation between household income, food intake, and nutritional status in less developed countries is examined, and a framework that explicitly relates household behavior patterns with public policy options designed to improve the nutritional status of the rural and urban poor is presented. For rural areas, nutritional and health status depends largely upon the levels of private inputs provided by households. In turn, level depends upon income. Consequently, increasing income may also lead to improvements in nutrition and health status. Regrettably, post-World War II development strategy in most developing countries has undervalued the potential contribution of agricultural development to economic development. Domestic economic policies practiced thus far have most probably had serious negative effects upon the nutrition and heal status of the poorest segments of developing nations. Economic development policy reform is therefore called for as a measure to alleviate rural poverty in developing countries.     

中国西南贫困山区道路与农户食物获得能力——基于贵州住户调查数据的分析

本文采用国内外研究最常用的3d—24h膳食回顾法,调查贵州普定县随机抽取的3个行政村8个自然村的全户数据,运用多元回归方程分析西南贫困山区道路是否会影响其农户食物获得能力。研究发现,调查地区农民的基本温饱问题尽管已经能够得到基本保障,但农民的营养结构还不太合理,蛋白质摄入量普遍不足,膳食质量有待进一步提高;居住地离集贸市场越远、道路状况越差,农民食物的多样性及膳食综合评价得分(DDP分值)越差。     

Can mobile phones improve nutrition among pastoral communities? Panel data evidence from Northern Kenya

The digital revolution and the ongoing dissemination of mobile phones carry several prospects for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Food insecurity and low dietary quality remain major issues among African smallholders. Mobile phones could potentially facilitate access to food markets and thus improve food security and nutrition, but research on such types of effects remains scarce. In this study, we analyze whether mobile phones improve dietary quality among pastoral communities in Northern Kenya. We use six rounds of household panel data covering the period between 2009 and 2015. During this period, mobile phone ownership in the sample increased from less than 30% to more than 70%. Regression models with household fixed effects allow robust estimation while reducing potential issues of unobserved heterogeneity. The estimates show that mobile phone adoption and use are positively and significantly associated with dietary diversity. The effects are particularly large for frequent mobile phone users. We also examine the underlying mechanisms. Mobile phone use improves dietary diversity mainly through better access to purchased foods. These results encourage the promotion of mobile phone technologies as a valuable tool for nutritional improvements, especially in remote rural settings with poor access to food markets.