{"id":311150,"date":"2024-09-23T19:40:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T14:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=311150"},"modified":"2024-09-23T19:40:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T14:10:06","slug":"thalinomics-vs-cost-of-healthy-diet-cohd-for-measuring-nutrition-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/thalinomics-vs-cost-of-healthy-diet-cohd-for-measuring-nutrition-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Thalinomics Vs Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) for measuring nutrition needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: <\/strong>This post is created based on the article Capturing the cost of healthy diets, published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 23rd<\/sup> Sep 2024.<\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus:<\/strong> GS Paper 2 \u2013 Social Issues \u2013 Issues related to Poverty and Hunger<\/p>\n

Context:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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

What are the main barriers to Healthy Diets?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

High cost of healthy diets<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

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

What are the limitations of Thalinomics aproach?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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:<\/p>\n

a) It accounts for only 61%<\/strong> of the recommended daily food requirements in grams.
\nb) It covers only 65% <\/strong>of the National Institute of Nutrition’s (NIN) 2021 caloric recommendations.
\nc) It excludes nutrient-rich food<\/strong> groups like green leafy vegetables, dairy, and nuts and seeds.<\/p>\n

Thalinomics relies on outdated data from the 2011-12 National Sample Survey Consumer Expenditure Survey (NSS-CES).<\/p>\n

The “typical” meals represented in Thalinomics may not account for India’s dietary diversity and local food availability.<\/p>\n

How does Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) function as an alternative?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The CoHD measures the minimum daily expenditure required to meet nutritional recommendations based on current FBDGs. It has the following advantages:<\/p>\n

a) Uses readily available price data<\/strong>, eliminating the need for reliance on expensive household consumption surveys.
\nb) Simple computations<\/strong> that can be easily understood.
\nc) Provides a more accurate representation<\/strong> of the cost of meeting nutritional requirements compared to the thali approach.<\/p>\n

For example,<\/strong> 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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Question for Practice<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Despite falling poverty rates and rising incomes over the last decade or more, India has struggled to substantially improve its nutritional outcome\u2019. Discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post is created based on the article Capturing the cost of healthy diets, published in The Hindu on 23rd Sep 2024. UPSC Syllabus: GS Paper 2 \u2013 Social Issues \u2013 Issues related to Poverty and Hunger Context: Even after improvements in poverty rates and income levels in India, India faces persistent nutritional challenges.… Continue reading Thalinomics Vs Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) for measuring nutrition needs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9,154],"tags":[212,8131,10498],"class_list":["post-311150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","category-social-issues","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-social-issues","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}