Household Food Consumption, Individual Caloric Intake and Obesity in France

Abstract

We show how to use a long period of observation of all food purchases at the household level to infer the profile of average individual caloric intakes according to the gender, age and the body mass index of household members. Using data from France, we apply this method to analyze the relationship between obesity and individual food consumption. The results show that obese or overweight individuals do absorb more calories at all ages but with differences that vary across gender and ages and across food nutrients such as carbohydrates, lipids or proteins.