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Abstract
Consumption of diverse diets is an important factor in promoting good health and nutrition.
Most of the studies on food demand in developing countries focused largely on the quantity
consumed of specific foods or food-groups with marginalized attention on dietary diversity.
This study examines the extent of food consumption diversity and the factors influencing
demand for diverse foods in Nigeria using micro-data on 18191 households. The transformed
versions (logistic transformation) of Berry and Entropy measures of dietary diversity were used
as regressands in the econometrics models employed for analysis. Low-income households and
households whose heads are females or without formal education have lower than the norm in
terms of diversity in food consumption. Income, food prices (captured by food price index),
access to remittance, educational attainment up to secondary school, sex of household head and
spatial factors are important determinants of demand for varied diets. Income improvement
strategy, renewed emphasis on nutrition education especially in secondary schools, efforts to
curtail food price inflation and sensitively-guided gender-based interventions are advocated,
among others. Findings call for evaluation of the extent to which policy actions in agriculture
and other relevant sectors weaken or advance diet diversity in order to devise holistic strategies
for nutrition and health.