Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Millets, milk and maggi: contested processes of the nutrition transition in rural India

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The nutrition transition—a process of dietary change that describes the shift to calorie-dense, higher fat and protein diets from cereal based ones—is happening in India. This paper argues that relatively little is known about the nature of nutrition transition in India. This is a result of both a lack of adequate and timely data and a consequence of national and state-level statistics, which render an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of how these processes are unfolding in local contexts. This may be especially true in India where very little ethnographic research has documented the dual edges of nutrition transitions. Analyzing data collected from the Kumaon Hills, Uttarakhand in 2013, this paper suggests the ways in which aspects of the nutrition transition have developed unevenly over space and time. In particular, while new types of calorie dense foods have infiltrated these rural, remote areas, the process has been uneven and fraught with contestation due to preexisting social practices. More troubling is the evidence that though incomes are rising, the predicted increases in high value, protein rich foods may actually be declining. This paper concludes by arguing that the widely influential nutrition transition literature needs look to ethnographic and in-depth qualitative methods to form better policies relevant to the contingencies of dietary and epidemiological change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. I use pseudonyms for all villages, research participants, and organizations throughout this paper.

  2. It should be noted that the market is roughly 3 km uphill from this village.

  3. Kurkure are a corn puff snack food produced and developed by PepsiCo. They are very similar to Cheetos and come in a 17 different flavors from the trademark “Masala Munch” to new regional inventions such as “Tamatar Hyderabadi Style” (PepsiCo India 2016).

  4. This is approximately 5–6 USD.

Abbreviations

NCD:

Non-communicable diseases

NFHS:

National Family Health Survey

NGO:

Non-governmental organization

SC:

Scheduled caste

References

  • Abu-Saad, K., Shahar, D.R., Fraser, D., Vardi, H., Friger, M., Bolotin, A., and L.S. Freddman. 2012. Adequacy of usual dietary intake and nutritional status among pregnant women in the context of nutrition transition: The DEPOSIT Study. The British Journal of Nutrition 108(10): 1874–1883.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alter, J. 2000. Gandhi’s body: Sex, diet, and the politics of nationalism. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anchala, R., et al. 2014. Hypertension in India. Journal of Hypertension 32(6): 1170–1177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. 1981. Gastro-politics in Hindu South Asia. American Ethnologist 8(3): 494–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee, K. 2011. Decentralised procurement and universalised PDS. Economic and Political Weekly XLVI(52):19–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee, A. and E. Duflo. 2011. More than 1 billion people are hungry in the world. Foreign Policy 186: 66–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basole, A., and D. Basu. 2015. Fuelling calorie intake decline: Household-level evidence from Rural India. World Development 68: 82–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaton, G.H., Milner, J., McGuire, V., Feather, T.E., and J.A. Little. 1983. Source of variance in 24-hour dietary recall data: implications for nutrition study design and interpretation. Carbohydrate sources, vitamins, and minerals. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 37(6): 986–995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhutta, Z.A., Das, J., Rizvi, J.A., Gaffey, M., Walker, N., Horton, S., et al. 2013. Evidence-based interventions for improvement of maternal and child nutrition: what can be done and at what cost. Lancet 382(9890): 452–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bobrow-Strain, A. 2012. White bread: a social history of the store-bought loaf. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Born, B. and M. Purcell. 2006. Avoiding the local trap: scale and food systems in planning research. Journal of Planning Education and Research 26: 195–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caplan, P. 2008. Crossing the veg/non-veg divide: Commensality and sociality among the middle classes in Madras/Chennai. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 31(1): 118–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chaudhary, M. and A. Gupta. 2012. Children’s Influence in Family Buying Process in India. Young Consumers 13(2): 161–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, S., Curtis, S., Diez-Roux, A.V., and S. Macintyre. 2007. Understanding and representing ‘Place’ in health research: a relational approach. Social Science and Medicine 65(9): 1825–1838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, K. 2009. Rural and urban linkages: operation flood’s role in India’s dairy development. IFPRI Discussion Paper 00924. Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deaton, A. and J. Drèze. 2009. Food and Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations. Economic and Political Weekly XLIV(7): 42–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodd, W. 2011. Towards a political ecology of nutritional transitions in Central America: the construction of nutrient-deficient ecologies. Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology 19(1): 119–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donner, H. 2008. New Vegetarianism: Food, Gender and Neo-Liberal Regimes in Bengali Middle-Class Families. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 31(1): 143–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finnis, E. 2007. The political ecology of dietary transitions: changing production and consumption patterns in the Kolli Hills, India. Agriculture and Human Values 24(3): 343–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finnis, E. 2008. Economic wealth, food wealth, and millet consumption. Food, Culture and Society 11(4): 464–485.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsyth, T. 2004. Critical political ecology: the politics of environmental science. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fourat, E. and O. Lepiller. 2015. Forms of Food Transition: Sociocultural Factors Limiting the Diets’ Animalisation in France and India. Sociologia Ruralis 57(1): 41–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fournier, T., et al. 2016. Eating patterns and prevalence of obesity. Lessons learned from the Malaysian food barometer. Appetite 107: 362–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freedman, L.S., Schatzkin, A., Midthune, D., and V. Kipnis. 2011. Dealing with dietary measurement error in nutritional cohort studies. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 103(14): 1086–1092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaiha, R., Kaicker, N., Imai, K., Kulkarni, V.S., and G. Thapa. 2012. Has dietary transition slowed down in India: an analysis based on 50th, 61st and 66th rounds of NSS. Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB) Discussion Paper series no. DP2012-15. Kobe. Japan: Kobe University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie, S., and L. Haddad. 2003. The double burden of malnutrition in Asia: causes, consequences, and solutions. New Delhi: Sage Publications India.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie, S., and S. Kadiyala. 2012. Exploring the agriculture-nutrition disconnect in India. In Reshaping agriculture for nutrition and health, eds. F. Shenggen, and R. Pandya-Lorch, 173–183. Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillman, M.W. 2005. Developmental origins of health and disease. The New England Journal of Medicine 353(17): 1848–1850.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, P.L., and M.E. Bentley. 2001. The nutrition transition is underway in India. The Journal of Nutrition 131(10): 2692–2700.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, C. 2006. Uneven dietary development: linking the policies and processes of globalization with the nutrition transition, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. Globalization and Health 2: 4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, C., Friel, S., Lobstein, T., and T. Lang. 2012. Linking agricultural policies with obesity and noncommunicable diseases: a new perspective for a globalising world. Food Policy 37(3): 343–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Himmelgreen, D.A., Cantor, A., Arias, S., and N.R. Daza. 2014. Using a biocultural approach to examine migration/globalization, diet quality, and energy balance. Physiology and Behavior 134(1): 76–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, M. 2007. The persistent problem of colorism: Skin tone, status, and inequality. Sociology Compass 1(1): 237–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 2016. Global nutrition report 2016: from promise to impact: ending malnutrition by 2030. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kadiyala, S, P.K. Joshi, D.S. Mahendra, K.T. Nanda, and V. Vyas. 2012. A nutrition secure India: role of agriculture. Economic and Political Weekly 47(8): 21–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaur, P., and R. Singh. 2006. Children in family purchase decision making in India and the west: a review. Academy of Marketing Science Review 8: 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, G., Nantel, G., and P. Shetty. 2004. Globalization of food systems in developing countries: a synthesis of country case studies. In Globalization of food systems in developing countries: impact on food security and nutrition. FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 83: 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamine, C. 2015. Sustainability and resilience in agrifood systems: reconnecting agriculture, food and the environment. Sociologia Ruralis 55(1): 41–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leatherman, T. L., and A. Goodman. 2005. Coca-colonization of diets in the Yucatan. Social Science and Medicine 61(4): 833–846.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michelutti, L. 2008. ‘We Are Kshatriyas but We Behave like Vaishyas’: Diet and Muscular Politics Among a Community of Yadavs in North India. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 31(1): 76–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India (MoA). 2014. Status Paper on Coarse Cereals. Directorate of Millets Development, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. March 2014.

  • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (MOFHW). 2007. National Family Health Survey-3 2005–2006: Uttarakhand State Fact Sheet. Mumbai: IIPS & Macro International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (MOFHW). 2016a. National Family Health Survey-4 2015–2016: Uttarakhand State Fact Sheet. Mumbai: IIPS & Macro International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (MOFHW). 2016b. National Family Health Survey-4 2015–2016: Nainital District Fact Sheet. Mumbai: IIPS & Macro International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Misra, A., Singhal, N., Sivakumar, B., Bhagat, N., Jaiswal, A., and L. Khurana. 2011. Nutrition transition in India: secular trends in dietary intake and their relationship to diet-related non-communicable diseases. Journal of Diabetes 3(4): 278–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mittal, S., Tripathi, G., and D. Sethi. 2008. Development strategy for the Hill Districts of Uttarakhand. Working Paper No. 217. New Delhi: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nag, M. 1994. Beliefs and practices about food during pregnancy: implications for maternal nutrition. Economic and Political Weekly, 29(37): 2427–2438.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagaraj, N., Basavaraj, G., Rao, P.P., and M.C.S. Bantilan. 2013. Sorghum and Pearl Millet Economy of India. Economic and Political Weekly 48(52): 74–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, C.E. 2015. Shifting production/shifting consumption: a political ecology of health perceptions in kumaon, India. Geoforum 64: 182–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, C.E. 2016. Time Ni Hota Hai: time poverty and food security in the Kumaon hills, India. Gender, Place and Culture 23(10): 1404–1419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nichter, M. 2002. The political ecology of health in India: indigestion as sign and symptom of defective modernization. In Healing powers and modernity: traditional medicine, shamanism, and science in Asian societies, eds. L. H. Connor, and G. Samuel, 97–118. Westport CT: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Keefe, E.L., DiNicolantonio, J.J., Patil, H., Helzberg, J.H., and C.J. Lavie. 2016. Lifestyle choices fuel epidemics of diabetes and cardiovascular disease among Asian Indians. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 58(5): 505–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osella, C. and F. Osella. 2008. Food, memory, community: Kerala as both ‘Indian Ocean’ zone and as agricultural homeland. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 31(1):170–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pingali, P. 2007. Westernization of Asian diets and the transformation of food systems: implications for research and policy. Food Policy 32(3): 281–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pingali, P. 2012. Green revolution: impacts, limits, and the path ahead. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 109(31): 12302–12308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pingali, P., and Y. Khwaja. 2004. Globalisation of Indian Diets and the Transformation of Food Supply Systems. ESA Working Paper No. 04–05. Rome: FAO: Agricultural and Development Economics Division.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piperata, B.A., Ivanova, S.A., Da-gloria, P., Veiga, G., Polsky, A., Spence, J.E., and R.S. Murrieta. 2011. Nutrition in transition: dietary patterns of rural Amazonian women during a period of economic change. American Journal of Human Biology 23(4): 458–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popkin, B. M. 1994. The nutrition transition in low-income countries: an emerging crisis. Nutrition Reviews 52(9): 285–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popkin, B., Horton, S., Kim, S., Mahal, A., and J. Shuigao. 2001. Trends in diet, nutritional status, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases in China and India: the economic costs of the nutrition transition. Nutrition Reviews 59(12): 379–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popkin, B.M., Adair, L.S., and S.W. Ng 2012. Global nutrition transition and the pandemic of obesity in developing countries. Nutrition Reviews 70(1): 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romero, V., Akpinar, H., and D.G. Assimos. 2010. Kidney stones: a global picture of prevalence, incidence, and associated risk factors. Reviews in Urology 12(2–3): e86–e96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachdev, H.P. 2012. Exploring agricultural levers for mitigating the overnutrition burden in India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 01183. Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shetty, P.S. 2002. Nutrition transition in India. Public Health Nutrition. 5(1A): 175–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, P., and R.S. Raghuvanshi. 2012. Finger millet for food and nutritional security. African Journal of Food Science 6(4): 77–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L.C. 2013. Great Indian calorie debate: explaining rising undernourishment during India’s rapid economic growth. IDS Working Paper No 430. UK: Institute of Development Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sridhar, V. 2015. Ban on Maggi: Nestle in a soup. Frontline. July 10, 2015.

  • Thapan, M. 2004. Embodiment and identity in contemporary society: Femina and the ‘new’Indian woman. Contributions to Indian. Sociology 38(3): 411–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, F.E. and A.F. Subar. 2013. Dietary assessment methodology. In Nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease 3rd ed. Eds. A. Coulston, C. Boushey, and M. Ferruzi, 3–30. London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulachan, P.M. and A. Neupane. 1999. Livestock in Mixed Farming Systems of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: Trends and Sustainability. Kathmandu: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, D.C.H., B. Ilbery and D. Maye. 2005. Making reconnections in agro-food geography?: alternative systems of food provision. Progress in Human Geography 29(1): 22–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, C. 2010. ‘Eating, eating is always there’: food, consumerism and cardiovascular disease. some evidence from Kerala, South India. Anthropology and Medicine 17(3): 261–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I foremost indebted to all of the research participants in Kumaon for so graciously sharing their stories with me, as well my two excellent field assistants Deepak and Tulsi. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers, the editor of this journal, and Dr. Mark Nichter for their helpful comments on this manuscript, as well as my colleague RJ Johnson for creating the study site map. Lastly, I acknowledge the University of Arizona Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute and the AAG Rural Geography Specialty Group for supporting this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, ENR2 Building, South 4th floor, P.O. Box 210137, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0137, USA

    Carly Nichols

Authors
  1. Carly Nichols
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carly Nichols.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nichols, C. Millets, milk and maggi: contested processes of the nutrition transition in rural India. Agric Hum Values 34, 871–885 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9781-0

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-017-9781-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation