Thalinomics Vs Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) for measuring nutrition needs

Source: This post is created based on the article Capturing the cost of healthy diets, published in The Hindu on 23^rd Sep 2024.

UPSC Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Social Issues – Issues related to Poverty and Hunger

Context: Even after improvements in poverty rates and income levels in India, India faces persistent nutritional challenges. The National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) in 2015-16 and 2019-21 reveal high rates of undernutrition among children and increasing anaemia among adults, alongside rising obesity prevalence in both rural and urban areas.

This triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies) is exacerbated by many factors. Healthy nutritious diets are crucial for addressing India’s triple burden of malnutrition.

What are the main barriers to Healthy Diets?

High cost of healthy diets, making them unaffordable for a significant portion of the population. As per the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 report, 55.6% of India’s population (788 million people) could not afford a nutritionally adequate diet as of 2022.

Rising food prices, especially for nutritious items like vegetables, fruits, pulses, and eggs, coupled with stagnating or declining real wages, are making healthy diets increasingly expensive.

What are the limitations of Thalinomics aproach?

The Economic Survey 2019-20 introduced ‘Thalinomics’ to calculate the cost of “typical” thalis based on the 2011 Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs). However, the thali does not adequately reflect nutritional recommendations:

a) It accounts for only 61% of the recommended daily food requirements in grams.
b) It covers only 65% of the National Institute of Nutrition’s (NIN) 2021 caloric recommendations.
c) It excludes nutrient-rich food groups like green leafy vegetables, dairy, and nuts and seeds.

Thalinomics relies on outdated data from the 2011-12 National Sample Survey Consumer Expenditure Survey (NSS-CES).

The “typical” meals represented in Thalinomics may not account for India’s dietary diversity and local food availability.

How does Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) function as an alternative?

The CoHD measures the minimum daily expenditure required to meet nutritional recommendations based on current FBDGs. It has the following advantages:

a) Uses readily available price data, eliminating the need for reliance on expensive household consumption surveys.
b) Simple computations that can be easily understood.
c) Provides a more accurate representation of the cost of meeting nutritional requirements compared to the thali approach.

For example, an analysis comparing CoHD with vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis over the period 2018-2023 shows that the CoHD was generally higher, particularly during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when supply disruptions led to a spike in the prices of perishables

The Thalinomics approach, though intuitive, fails to capture the real cost of nutritious diets and may underestimate it, especially in times of crisis. In contrast, the CoHD provides a more accurate reflection of the true cost of meeting nutritional needs. It accounts for the fluctuating costs of perishable foods, particularly during supply-side disruptions.

Question for Practice

‘Despite falling poverty rates and rising incomes over the last decade or more, India has struggled to substantially improve its nutritional outcome’. Discuss.