Patterns of Household Food Consumption in Rural, Central Mexico

Résumé du livre

The research investigates household level food consumption in six communities from Mexico's rural, central highlands (the Soils Valley). The principal objectives of the dissertation were: 1) a detailed description of the Solfs Valley diet of the 1980s, 2) a comprehensive description of the social milieu of household food consumption, and 3) an investigation of inter-household variation in food consumption with respect to selected biological and social factors. The research employs data collected on 290 households by the Mexico Nutrition CRSP survey project. The dependent variables were derived from extensive data on household food consumption, food use, and food purchases. The research also employs several social and economic variables, including measures of household wealth, agricultural involvement, male migration, parental education, household structure, and parental aspirations for children. The analytic results show the Solfs Valley diet to be an admixture of Indian, Spanish, and cosmopolitan origin. While many different foods are consumed in the valley, most food consumption is restricted to some 39 core foods. While home- production provides the bulk of household calories, only 5 foods were predominantly home-produced; the remaining foods (including beans) were usually purchased. The Solfs Valley diet continues to be based on maize consumption. Household production of maize paralleled household energy needs, and provided most of the maize consumed. Failure to meet household maize needs was associated with male involvement with migration. The major predictors of annual household maize consumption were estimated household energy needs (more maize), household material wealth (less maize), and the number of persons aged 15 or older in the household (less maize). Other analyses investigated household consumption of 18 core foods. Consumption of these foods was expressed in terms of two parameters: frequency of consumption ("consumption frequencies"), and the median weight of the food when consumed ("consumption weights"). Consumption frequencies were best predicted by the material wealth of the household, while the consumption weights were best predicted by estimated household energy needs and household composition. The consumption weights of non-maize foods were seen to level off as households become large, resulting in apparently decreasing dietary quality. Wealth did not mitigate the effects of large household size.