Determinants of growth among poor children: effect of expenditure for food on nutrient sources.

The effect of increasing expenditure on the nature and the amounts of foods consumed by children from an urban population was estimated by studying the diets of 111 children from 20 typically poor families and those of 12 children from six economically better off families who had a much more satisfactory growth status. Total calories and protein, fat, and carbohydrate calories were expressed as a fraction of each individual's estimated energy requirement, thus adjusting for sex, age, and size. No important sex differences were found. Calorie intake was 87.2 +/- 17.3% and 111.4 +/- 18.1% of requirement for the two groups, respectively. Differences were found between the groups in protein calories which were totally due to milk and meat. Differences in fat calories were due to milk, meat, and separated fats. There was no significant difference between groups in total carbohydrate calories, although there were shifts in its components with increasing expenditure. Regression analysis of calorie adequacies as a function of per capita expenditure for food, both in the poorer group and in the combined population, were performed and yielded highly significant (p less than 0.001) results. These were due to significant gradual increases in the consumption of milk, meat, separated fats, fruits and vegetables on top of an almost constant consumption of the staple cereals, roots and tubers.