Micronutrient boost: Research uncovers path to healthy, climate-friendly diets in India

26 Mar 2018 --- A study by a team of IIASA researchers has explored ways to reduce micronutrient deficiencies in India affordably while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers used the National Sample Survey of Consumption Expenditure in India to examine Indian diets, which showed that more than two-thirds of the Indian population, around 500 million people, are affected by deficiencies in micronutrients such as protein, iron, zinc and vitamin A, which contributes to lower life expectancies.

Iron deficiencies, in particular, are close to 90 percent, vitamin A deficiencies stand at around 85 percent and more than 50 percent of diets are protein-deficient. India has the second-lowest per capita meat consumption in the world and most Indians have a largely vegetarian diet, with low bioavailability of iron. In many areas of India, polished white rice, which has little nutrient content, is predominant in diets, partly due to food subsidies which make it cheaper than other coarse cereals.

“The conventional wisdom is that calories have to increase to improve nutrition, which is associated with higher food production and higher greenhouse gas emissions,” says lead author Narasimha Rao.

The researchers compared nutritional information for different food types including rice, cereals, meat and dairy products, as well as looking at the cost to households and the greenhouse gas emissions.

By looking at various scenarios, including with and without food subsidies, the researchers found that at current prices households can affordably improve micronutrition by moving away from consuming white, polished rice and instead choose wheat, maize and millet products, and choosing chicken and legumes over beef and eggs to boost protein intake. Adding green leafy vegetables and coconut would also reduce deficiencies cost-effectively, even for the those living in poverty.

These diet changes would reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, due predominantly to rice production’s high methane emissions.

Rao says that policymakers should consider introducing subsidies for nutrition – and climate-friendly food products such as coarse cereals, pulses and dark green vegetables. He adds that the insights provided by the research on the possible improvements to diet also hold true outside India.

“The next stage in the research should be to investigate the acceptability of possible diet changes, the feasibility of shifts in agricultural production patterns, and any other potential environmental impacts,” he says.

“A food-based approach like dietary diversification is one of the known strategies for improving the nutritional intake of the population. However, there could be situations when food alone may not solve a nutritional problem of large magnitude and we need to adopt parallel strategies like fortification and supplementation to solve it,” study author Suparna Ghosh-Jerath tells NutritionInsight. “Though this was not the focus of our paper, fortification programs can be supported by food industry especially those foods which are used as a vehicle for fortification for example: salt.”

A strategy such as food fortification has already addressed some of India's nutritional issues. For example, the incidences of iodine deficiency disorder. This is linked to the iodine-deficient soil, which in turn leads to a deficiency of iodine in crops grown on iodine-deficient soil with consequently low iodine in the diet for livestock and humans.

“In India, it is mandatory to fortify salt with iodine. This holds true for all the commercial producers also,” Ghosh-Jerath notes.

“For iron deficiency and anemia also, the magnitude of the problem is so large, that we have national iron supplementation program with a life cycle approach. Under the program iron and folic acid supplements are provided to adolescents, children, women in the reproductive age group, pregnant and lactating women,” Ghosh-Jerath says. “However, nutritional supplementation programs are always complemented with food-based approaches which are known to be sustainable along with behavior change communication and nutrition education.”

by Lucy Gunn

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