Role of grains and pulses in the diet

Role of grains and pulses in the diet

FAO food balance sheets describe each country's per capita food supply in terms of the amount of primary foods available for human consumption each year since 1961.

Table 1. Per capita food supply in 1999

Country	Cereal supply (kg/year)	Pulse supply (kg/yr)	Meat supply (kg/year)	Energy from cereals (cal/d)	Protein from cereals (grams/d)
Australia	90.9	9.1	108.9	727	24.7
Egypt	250	8.2	22.6	2188	59.4
China	193.9	1.1	49.1	1675	36.6
Malaysia	148.3	2.8	54.0	1256	25.7
Thailand	112.8	3.5	24.6	1091	20.1
India	155.6	12.8	4.6	1428	33.7
Developing countries	165.6	6.8	26.9	1458	33.9
Developed countries	130.0	3.0	77.1	1009	28.9

FAO Food Balance Sheets www.fao.org

FAO Food Balance Sheets in 1999 (Table 1) indicate:

i. World consumption of grains and pulses

According to recent FAO Food Balance Sheets, the world's biggest consumers of cereals are Egypt, Turkey, China and the Middle East. They eat from 180 kg of cereals/person/year to 250 kg/person/year. In Australia, consumption is around 91 kg/person/year.
The world's highest consumers of pulses are Brazil, Mexico, Central America, Turkey, India and Nigeria - eating from 12 kg/person/year to 19 kg/person/year. In comparison, Australians ate around 9 kg/person/year.

ii. Eating patterns associated with grain and pulse consumption

Cereals (grains) are staple foods, contributing substantially to total energy and protein intake (Table 1).
The more cereals are eaten, the greater their nutritional contribution.
Cereal consumption decreases with economic development -the amount of cereals eaten per person generally declines as the income per person in a country increases.
As more animal products are eaten, cereal consumption decreases, contributing less to caloric and protein intake.

iii. The type of grains eaten around the world

Wheat is the most popular cereal eaten in the world.
Most wheat (100-200 kg/person/year) is eaten in North Africa and Europe.
Rice is the main cereal eaten in Asia, particularly Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand where most meals are based on rice (up to 165 kg/person/year).
Maize is the preferred cereal in parts of southern Africa (up to 135 kg/person/year) and Central America, particularly Mexico,(129 kg/person/year).
Few countries have millet available for human consumption, except in Africa (12.7 kg/person/yr).
Lithuania is the largest consumer of rye (49 kg/person/year) compared to average consumption in the world (1.2 kg/person/year). Rye is also popular in Scandinavia (~15 kg/person/year), Eastern Europe (up to 35 kg/person/year) and Russia.

iv. Trends in grain and pulse consumption
Comparing FAO Food Balance Sheets from the 1960s with 1999 shows how the food supply has changed over time.

In China the availability of pulses has declined from 5.5 kg/person in 1969 to
1.1 kg/person in 1999, whereas meat consumption has increased from 9.3 kg/person to 49.1 kg/person. Consequently, the Chinese dietary guidelines encourage Chinese people to eat more pulses and cereals.

Interestingly, as less plant-based foods are eaten, the incidence of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, cancer and obesity seems to increase. However, other diet and non diet-related factors may explain this association.

What are FAO food balance sheets?
They are indirect estimates derived from the difference between food production, utilization, waste and loss. Differences in the reporting of food production between countries can result in discrepancies in the data presented in Food Balance Sheets. For example, Australian data for wheat are reported as flour, some countries report cereal data as grain and others apply a correction factor to allow for the extraction rate (about 70%) of flour from grain. Hence this data is useful for simply comparing general grain and pulse consumption patterns and trends around the world.