This study provides a link between the efficiency wage hypothesis and the current literature of economic growth. An analysis of the interactions between food intake and other productivity determinants in various nations shows that nutritional status is an important long run determinant of productivity and economic development. The paper corroborates rtcent empirical evidences that reject global convergence in favor of conditional convergence of per capita income between countries. The novelty of the present results is that having determined the existence of clubs, based on their 1961 level of caloric intake, these clubs reveal distinct patterns of productivity and growth.