Abstract

                                Within the last 30 years science has reached definite conclusions as to what constitutes a good diet for human beings. The principles of correct feeding are fairly well understood and "optimum" dietary standards based on these principles have been drawn up by League of Nations Commissions and other suthoritative organisations. Now generally speaking a "good" diet-i. e., a diet which approaches or attains the physiological optimum-costs more than a diet which fails at various points to satisfy human nutritional requirements, and consequently there is a close correlation between the economic status of a family. or population group and the physiological value of its diet. In a sense this is a platitude, perhaps better expressed in a simple phrase such as "the poor can't afford to buy enough of the right sort of food to eat". But a more detailed analysis of the relation between income and diet than such a phrase provides helps in the understanding of the problem of nutrition in India.

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