Food consumption patterns in a Palestinian West Bank population

Abstract

Objective: To describe the food consumption patterns in relation to wealth status and age groups in a Palestinian West Bank village population.

Design: Community-based cross-sectional survey of both households and individuals. A list recall method was used at the household level. At the individual level, a short food-frequency questionnaire was used in addition to a 24-h recall without estimates of portion sizes.

Setting: A Palestinian semi-rural village in the central West Bank.

Subjects: All households and all men and women aged 30–65 y in the study village were invited. All 368 households and 85% (n=500) of eligible individuals participated.

Results: The mean energy consumption from 25 selected food items on household level was about 13.8 MJ (3300 kcal)/consumption unit/d (a consumption unit corresponds to the expected energy requirement for an adult male). The proportion of dietary energy from fat and the consumption of most animal products was highest among the wealthiest households, and the opposite trend was seen for the consumption of wheat flour and lentils. There seems to be an ongoing trend of increasing consumption of processed products rich in sugar among the younger age groups.

Conclusion: Shortage of dietary energy on the household level did not seem to be a problem in this population, even among the poorest. Differences in food consumption patterns between the poor and the wealthy, including a higher percentage of energy from fat among the wealthy, may be to the disadvantage of the wealthy with respect to some diet-related chronic diseases.

Sponsorship: The Norwegian Universities’ Committee for Development Research (NUFU).