Assessing nutritional intake from a field study in Odisha

Abstract

Nutritional Intake Assessment is still a popular method to measure household food security through food intake surveys. This measurement primarily detects the presence of inadequate intake among individuals and population groups. Even though, a sufficient intake of a nutrient does not guarantee adequate nutrition status for an individual, and an insufficient intake does not always indicate a deficiency, but such findings warn of possible problems. This article is a part of the doctoral research on Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security in Odisha-A Research Study on Nayagarh District by the first author. Data on daily food intake was collected from the 400 sample families. The data on cereal, pulses, vegetables, edible oil, milk&milk products and flesh food which includes meat/fish/egg. Then using dietary guidelines of National Institute for Nutrition (NIN), the energy from the food has been converted into energy in terms of Kilo Calorie, Separate conversion of energy from fat, protein and carbohydrates were also done. The research study has found that diversification of diet, percentage of family members working in agriculture, share of non-food essentials significantly affect the average food intake at the household level. The article is divided into four parts. Section 1 provides the introduction and review of literature on nutritional intake at household level. Section 2 has outlined the status of nutritional security at household level. Section 3 analyses various determining variables affecting food intake and the last section concludes the article. This study takes on average nutritional intake at household level as the measure of nutritional status at household level.