In either case, the poor do see themselves as having a significant amount of choice, but they choose not to exercise that choice in the direction of spending more on food. The typical poor household in Udaipur could spend up to 30 per- cent more on food than it actually does, just based on what it spends on alcohol, tobacco, and festivals. Indeed, in most of the surveys the share spent on food is about the same for the poor and the extremely poor, suggesting that the extremely poor feel no extra compulsion to purchase more calories.

WHY??