UK Chickpea Consumption Doubled Over a Decade
What it found
In the UK, the share of people eating chickpeas more than doubled between 2008/09 and 2018/19, and chickpea eaters tended to have better overall diet quality.
The findings come from a national survey of 15,655 people who kept four-day food diaries.
What they found
Studies in people
Chickpea consumption doubled
The share of people eating chickpeas rose from 6.1% in 2008-2012 to 12.3% in 2016-2019. The biggest jump was in children aged 1.5 to 3 years, going from 5.7% to 13.4%, mostly from hummus.
Who eats chickpeas
Chickpea consumption was higher among people with higher incomes and more education, and among non-white individuals compared with white individuals. Healthy-weight adults were more likely to eat chickpeas than those who were overweight or obese.
Better diet quality
Chickpea consumers ate more dietary fibre, fruits and vegetables, pulses and nuts, and less red and processed meat than bean consumers and non-bean consumers. They also scored higher on a measure of adherence to UK dietary recommendations.
Fibre still below target
Even chickpea consumers ate on average 21 g of fibre a day, which is still below the 30 g daily amount recommended in the UK.
What the authors conclude
“In the UK, chickpea consumption more than doubled from 2008/09 to 2018/19. Chickpea consumers had a higher diet quality than non-consumers.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say that chickpea consumption in the UK more than doubled from 2008/09 to 2018/19 and that chickpea consumers had a higher diet quality than non-consumers.
- They conclude that increasing chickpea consumption may help increase fibre intake and improve diet quality.
- They suggest that future research may examine different ways to increase fibre consumption, including chickpea consumption.
How it was done
Only 9% of people in the UK meet the recommended daily fibre intake, and little was known about chickpea consumption there. The authors wanted to look at chickpea intake trends and the diets of people who eat chickpeas.
They analysed food diary data from 15,655 people aged 1.5 years and older who took part in the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey between 2008/09 and 2018/19. Each person kept a four-day food diary, and the researchers compared nutrient and food group intakes between chickpea consumers, bean consumers, and people who ate neither.
What it can’t tell you
- This study followed people over time and looked at their diets, so it can show links between chickpea consumption and better diet quality, but it cannot prove that eating chickpeas causes better health.
- The data came from food diaries, which can have errors if people forget or change what they report.
- The number of non-white participants was small, so the researchers could not analyse specific ethnic groups in detail.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- The authors are all employees of PepsiCo. The authors have no additional conflicts of interest to report.
The paper
- Title
- UK Chickpea Consumption Doubled from 2008/09-2018/19
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Kutepova I, Rehm CD, Friend SJ (2023). UK Chickpea Consumption Doubled from 2008/09-2018/19. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu15224784Free full textPubMed 38004178DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error