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Computations and findings

Correlations of GDP with protein supplies and animal protein ratios

In the same manner as before [1], semi-logarithmic correlations of GDP per capita per year in US dollars at 1985 prices [8, 9] with total protein supplies per capita per day and with APRs were computed on a world basis by pooling statistical data from 161 countries for 1972-74, 1975-77, 1979-81, 1984-86, and 1987-89 averages from FAO food balance sheets and related information [10]:

The computation was done by the least-squares method, with the data statistically weighted according to population. The GDP figures in US dollars at 1985 prices were derived using implicit price deflators from the GDP figures at the current prices in each country.

These correlation formulas and related coefficients are shown in table 2. The slopes of the world standard correlations as an average of the five periods from 1972 to 1989 at 1985 prices have moved a little to the left from those as an average of the four periods from 1972 to 1986 at 1980 prices reported earlier [1]. This movement means that protein food prices rose owing to inflation from 1980 to 1985.

Dietary imbalances of EAAs are closely correlated with the APRs of the countries studied and are also related to total protein supplies and to GDP.

The world distribution of GDP per capita per year in US dollars at 1985 prices, total protein supplies per capita per day, and APRs for 161 countries for which correlations were computed are shown in table 3. In general, countries in which the first limiting amino acid (LAA) of the dietary protein is lysine have average annual incomes of approximately US$4,000 per capita, total protein intakes below 80 g per capita per day, and APRs below 50%. How ever, the imbalance of EAAs is also affected by different food patterns in different countries. For example, in Mexico, tryptophan rather than lysine is the first LAA, even though the APR was 38.4% in 1987-89. This is because their staple cereal food, maize, is deficient in tryptophan and the supplies of animal protein and pulses are relatively high, with recent improvement in the composition of the average national diet.

TABLE 1. Scoring patterns of essential amino acids

Values are milligrams per kilogram of body weight except for the 1973 pattern, for which they are milligrams per gram of protein. In the designations of age groups, "1", for example, represents an average for the range 1.0-1.99 years.
a. Interpolated curvilinearly from the values in ref. 3.

TABLE 2. Correlation formulas for GNP with total protein and animal protein supplies

X = GDP (US dollars per capita per year at 1985 prices);
Y = total protein supplies (grams per capita per day);
Z = animal:protein ratios (%).

These figures are significant down to decimals as shown in table.

TABLE 3. Distribution of GDP, total protein supplies, and animal protein ratios in 161 countries throughout the world

No. = number of countries

a. US dollars per capita per year at 1985 paces.
b. Grams per capita per day.

TABLE 4. Assumed body weights (kilograms) by age

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