Table - Diet and grain demand

	Grain Equivalent	Food Energy	Animal Protein	Plant Protein
Diet	kg per year	kJ per day	gram per day	gram per day
Vegetarian	475	10.0	8.6	66.7
Moderate	875	10.0	31.2	50.0
Affluent	1,530	11.5	63.2	28.9
Source: Luyten / Qinghua / deVries, 1996

These estimates assume that a affluent diet in China would cost about three times more grain than a mainly vegetarian diet. The food energy consumption of the affluent diet, however, would be only 15% higher. Protein consumption would be more than seven times higher (63 as compared to 8.6 gram per day); but with an affluent diet the people would eat less than half of the plant protein as compared to a vegetarian diet. A seven-times increase in meat consumption would be equivalent to a tripling of grain demand.

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