Urban-rural difference in cereal consumption by people in Shandong Province, China

In October, 1996, 24-hour food duplicate samples were collected from two groups of 50 adult women each; one group was in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong Province in China, and the other in a farming village of Baiquan in Zhangqiu area some 30 km away from the city. Perusal of food menus showed that wheat, rice, foxtail millet and maize were major cereals for the two groups. Nutritional analysis of the food duplicate samples were conducted taking advantage of weight of each food item and the standard food composition tables for Chinese populations. Whereas wheat was the leading source in both groups (73% of cereal-based energy in the city and 64% in the village), further urban-rural comparison showed that women in the village took substantial amounts of millet (19%) and maize (12%) in contrast to small consumption by the city people (millet by 5% and maize by 2%). Rice consumption was larger in the city (20%) than in the village (5%). The differences between the two groups were all significant for each of the four cereals. Nutritional significance of consumption of maize in particular and also that of millet were discussed.