A total of 689 families from rural areas of Northeast Brazil were studied; they were divided into four categories, according to land tenure: no land owner (n - LO), small land owner (s - LO) who had up 10 hectare of land, intermediate land owner (i - LO) 10 to 50 hectares and big land owner (b - LO) who had more than 50 ha of land. The mean energy intake of the n - LO was 1,605 calories, which represented 79,4 % of the requirement of this group. For the other groups (s - LO, i - LO and b - LO) this average increased in relation to the area of land owned. The energy intake of the b - LO groups is quite high (about 3,000 cal) corresponding to the average values of the developed countries. Or the average, protein deficiency was not detected among the groups. The total calory value (TCV) of the diet was as follows: 13% protein, 11% lipids an 76% carbohidrates. Protein and lipid intakes increase with the area of the land owned, but carbohidrates decrease. Roots and grains were the main contributors to the TCV but their contribution decreased as the area of the land owned increased. On the other hand, the importance of the animal products increased in proportion to land size. No differences were detected among the categories concerning two other groups of food stuffs: vegetables and fruit, sugar and oil.
Nutrition surveys; Food consumption; Ownership; Nutrition status