There is a peculiar challenge that goes beyond my understanding.

It was hypothesized that both thrombogenic and atherogenic factors may be responsible for premature coronary heart disease (CHD) in young Indians. A case-control study was performed to determine cardiovascular risk factors in young patients with CHD in India.

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<h3><font size="3">There will soon be seven billion people on the planet.

Utsa Patnaik’s new critique of our work on food and nutrition is wholly unconvincing. Her analysis of international patterns of “total” cereal consumption, interesting as it may be, does not invalidate anything we wrote, and certainly does not indict us of any “fallacies”. And her attempt to demonstrate that the decline of cereal intake in India reflects “severe demand-deflation for the majority of the population” is based on a circular argument.

Continuing the debate on the Deaton and Dreze analysis of food and nutrition in India, it is argued that the latter’s analysis is defective because (i) it does not look at direct and indirect cereal consumption when examining the relationship between cereal intake and income, and (ii) it is fallacious to reason that the declining cereal consumption reflects a diversification of diets. It is also pointed out that the Deaton-Dreze critical response to the use of “direct poverty lines” is misplaced.

Utsa Patnaik

Transition to diets that are high in saturated fat and sugar has caused a global public health concern, as the pattern of food consumption is a major modifiable risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases.