Proteins vs beverages: Gnawing spending gaps in some states, shows data

Some large states’ spending on beverages and processed foods is nine times as much as that on high-quality proteins like eggs, fish and meat, shows Household Consumption Expenditure (HCE) survey data for 2023-24.

 

In states like Gujarat and Punjab, for every rupee spent on protein-rich diet, the spend on beverages and processed foods was ₹9-17. Other big states like Karnataka and Rajasthan also had wide spending gaps.

 

A factsheet with initial data from the HCE survey, which provides estimates of peoples’ spending at the national and state levels, was released in December; it was followed by a more detailed report towards the end of last month.

 

While rural Punjab spent around 2.7 per cent of its total food expenditure on egg, fish and meat, its spend on beverages and processed foods was 24.3 per cent. Rajasthan and Gujarat had similar numbers, though the protein allocation in Gujarat was lower. These three states had the widest gap between spending on egg, fish and meat on the one hand and beverages and processed foods on the other. The gap in all three was wider than the all-India numbers. The gap in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala was the narrowest, with Kerala being the only state where rural people spent a larger portion of their food budget on proteins. 

 

The gaps in urban areas were even wider, with urban Gujarat spending ₹17 and urban Punjab ₹12 on beverages and processed foods for every ₹1 spent on eggs, fish and meat. Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar reported the narrowest gaps. Every major state had a lower share of protein in urban food budgets relative to beverages and processed foods.

 

This disparity gains greater significance in view of concerns over diabetes and heart ailments, which can worsen with consumption of processed foods, even as India struggles with nutritional deficits, including insufficient consumption of proteins.

 

There is a deficiency of 0.2 to 0.4 grams per kilogram of body weight per day in Indians’ consumption of proteins, according to Kiran M, associate professor at the Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences University. “Dietary recommendation for protein is 0.8-1 g per kg of body weight, while the estimated consumption is 0.6 g per kg per day — a deficit of 0.2 to 0.4 g per kg per day,” he says, suggesting room for growth domestically, even as global protein demand is expected to grow in double digits, at around 14 per cent, in the future. 

 

The risk of protein deficiency in India remains high, noted a December 2019 study, titled ‘Supply and Demand of High Quality Protein Foods in India: Trends and Opportunities’, by Sumedha Minocha, Sanchit Makkar, Sumathi Swaminathan, Tinku Thomas, Patrick Webb, and Anura V Kurpad, from institutions like Bengaluru’s St John's Research Institute and St John's Medical College, and the US’ Tufts University.

 

“This is because cereals continue to dominate the total protein intake in diets, whereas high-quality foods such as legumes, milk, eggs, fish and meat, are consumed in smaller quantities,” noted the study.

 

A majority of pregnant women in Punjab (51.7 per cent) were anaemic, according to 2020-21 data from the fifth round of the government’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). While 71.1 per cent of children between 6 and 59 months of age were anaemic, around a quarter of children were stunted.

 

In Gujarat, an even higher proportion of pregnant women (62.6 per cent) were anaemic, according to NFHS-5. The proportion of children between 6 and 59 months of age who were anaemic was also higher (79.7 per cent), while around 39 per cent of children in the state were stunted.