More men eating non-veg than before: Health survey data

Data from the recently released NFHS-5, which was conducted in 2019-21, show that the proportion of men aged 15-49 years who have never consumed non-vegetarian food — listed as ‘fish, chicken or meat’ in the survey — stood at 16.6 per cent in 2019-21.

An overwhelming 83.4 per cent of men and 70.6 per cent of women in the 15-49 age group eat non-vegetarian food daily, weekly or occasionally. That figure stood at 78.4 per cent for men and 70 per cent for women in NHFS-4.

Amid the veg/non-veg debate that periodically convulses the country is a reality check: more people are eating non-vegetarian food than ever before, and the proportion of Indian men who do so has gone up sharply in the six years between between 2015-16 and 2019-21, shows an analysis by The Indian Express of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data.