A comparative analysis of dietary intake and body composition among two ethnically distinct tribal populations from India.

Despite the fact that both these tribes are engaged in primitive technology-based agriculture that requires a lot of physical labour, such difference in their body composition could be due to fundamental differences in the physical environment and great dietary/nutritional intake. In fact, it was found that Monpa follow a daily diet that is highly rich in dairy fat and animal protein, as compared to their counterpart Santhal. Santhal's daily diet generally consists of rice and boil vegetables, with protein consumption as low as once or twice a month. However, despite these differences the paper revealed no significant influence of dietary intake on the body composition of these populations. Hence, an adaptive approach is proposed to understand the substantial proportion of body composition variations in these two ethnically diverse populations.