E-poster prepared for Knowledge Fair side event at 2020 Conference on "Leveraging agriculture for improving nutrition and health," Feb 10-12, 2011, New Delhi, India Credit: Lauren Finzer

1. Pushcarts or shopping carts?
Supermarkets and nutrition in urban India
For more information, contact Lauren Finzer (lauren.finzer@gmail.com)
The implications of the rapid rise of supermarkets in India are hotly contested, but nutrition is largely
missing from the debate. This is a mistake: As they reach more Indians over time, supermarkets will
increasingly influence dietary patterns. Decision makers should think ahead about how to maximize health
and well-being in light of the growth of supermarkets, and gather data to inform policy and practice.
This Fulbright research project directly asks 300 randomly selected households in South Delhi where and
when they buy fruit and vegetables, what drives those decisions, and what they see as barriers to eating
more fruit and vegetables. It examines correlations with income, education, dietary habits, obesity, and
chronic disease history. Surveyed households will be followed over the next three years as part of a larger
study on chronic disease.
This data set provides a baseline
for thinking about how to
effectively promote consumption
of healthy foods. Over time,
changes in consumption,
purchasing habits and
preferences, and chronic disease
can be tracked as supermarkets
develop in South Delhi.
Project under the mentorship of Dr. D. Prabhakaran at
the Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi