The economic crisis in Spain has had an adverse effect on the diet of Spaniards, a report published in the newspaper "20 Minutos" showed on Monday.

The report, which is based on a study of 1,644 households in the capital city of Madrid and which was compiled during the first six months of 2012, showed that each resident of the capital consumed an average of 314.9 kilos of food during the period, which is 3.4 percent less than in the same period of 2008, when the crisis began.

According to the report, people's eating habits were also changing. They ate 23.8 percent less beef, 25.5 percent less lamb and 3 percent less chicken than they did four years ago.

People ate 23.2 percent more rabbit meat, which is cheap, the report said.

Fish has also disappeared from a lot of tables in Spain, with the fish consumption in Madrid dropping by 17.4 percent on average, while there were even bigger falls for more expensive fish such as sole and sardines.

Consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables dropped by 2.65 percent and 4.1 percent respectively but people ate 9.9 percent more rice.

All of these show that while Spaniards were still filling their stomachs, they ate a less complete and less healthy diet.