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Wild foods contribute to women’s higher dietary diversity in India

Nature Food volume 4, pages 476–482 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Wild foods, from forests and common lands, can contribute to food and nutrition security. Most previous studies have established correlations between wild food consumption and children’s dietary diversity in Africa, but other groups and geographic contexts remain understudied. Here a rigorous quasi-experimental method was combined with monthly interval data to assess the contribution of wild foods to women’s diets. We collected 24 h diet recall data monthly, from November 2016 to November 2017, from 570 households in East India. We found that wild foods contributed positively to diets, especially in June and July (when consumption of wild foods was highest). Women who consumed wild foods had higher average dietary diversity scores (13% and 9% higher in June and July, respectively) and were more likely to consume nutrient-dense, dark-green leafy vegetables than those who did not. Our results underscore the importance of policies that increase knowledge of wild foods and protect people’s rights to access forests and other common lands for improved nutrition.

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Fig. 1: The selected villages and the forests that surround them in Bankura and Palamu District.
Fig. 2: Percentage of women in the sample who consumed wild foods each month from November 2016 to November 2017.
Fig. 3: Comparison of the average DDS, MDD and consumption of dark-green leafy vegetables and other vitamin-A-rich fruits and vegetables of women who ate wild foods compared with a matched control of women who did not eat wild foods.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this manuscript are available at https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/nrm_datasets/6/.

Code availability

The codes used for this analysis are available at https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/nrm_datasets/6/.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Jalali and the Revitalizing Rainfed Agriculture Network for their logistical support collecting the data. We also acknowledge funding from the Borlaug Fellowship in Global Food Security Program; Marshall Weinberg Population, Development and Climate Change, Dow Environmental Sustainability Doctoral Fellowship; and from Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan. B.d.B. and L.V.R. were funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 853222 FORESTDIET).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. South Dakota State University, Department of Natural Resources, Brookings, SD, USA

    Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek

  2. University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek

  3. Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Public Health, Berlin, Germany

    Nathalie J. Lambrecht

  4. Research Department 2, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany

    Nathalie J. Lambrecht

  5. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Bowy den Braber & Laura Vang Rasmussen

  6. Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, India

    Nirali Akanchha, Dhanapal Govindarajulu & Ashwini Chhatre

  7. Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Andrew D. Jones

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Contributions

J.Z.C. and A.C. facilitated data collection. J.Z.C., N.J.L., L.V.R., A.D.J. and A.C. developed the conceptual model for the paper. L.V.R. and N.J.L. did initial modelling and statistical analysis and matching analysis was completed by B.d.B. D.G. made maps. D.G., N.A. and A.C. provided cultural and historical context for the paper. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek.

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Cheek, J.Z., Lambrecht, N.J., den Braber, B. et al. Wild foods contribute to women’s higher dietary diversity in India. Nat Food 4, 476–482 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00766-1

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