The nutrition transition: new trends in the global diet
Open accessAbstract
Analyses of economic and food availability data for 1962-1994 reveal a major shift in the structure of the global diet marked by an uncoupling of the classic relationship between incomes and fat intakes. Global availability of cheap vegetable oils and fats has resulted in greatly increased fat consumption among low-income nations. Consequently, the nutrition transition now occurs at lower levels of the gross national product than previously, and is accelerated further by high urbanization rates. Data from Asian nations, where diet structure is rapidly changing, suggest that diets higher in fats and sweeteners are also more diverse and more varied. Given that preferences for palatable diets are a universal human trait, fat consumption may be governed not by physiological mechanisms but by the amount of fat available in the food supply. Whereas economic development has led to improved food security and better health, adverse health effects of the nutrition transition include growing rates of childhood obesity. The implications of these trends are explored.
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A second key change has been the increasing intake of vegetable oils, including processed vegetable oils, and a decline in consumption of animal fats.
“A second key change has been the increasing intake of vegetable oils, including processed vegetable oils, and a decline in consumption of animal fats (2,63).”
From Food Consumption and its Impact on Cardiovascular Disease: Importance of Solutions Focused on the Globalized Food System (2015) · cites this paper as [63]
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- Authors
- Drewnowski, A., & Popkin, B. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Popkin, Barry M.
- Venue
- Nutrition Reviews
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2009-04-27
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 31-43
- ISSN
- 0029-6643 (ISSN-L)
- 1753-4887
- OpenAlex
- W2030484188
- Cited by
- 1,440
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 84 · 2019: 77 · 2018: 56 · 2017: 64 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 84 · 2014: 78 · 2013: 74 · 2012: 61
- FWCI
- 9.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nutrition Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5p01hd028076-05)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01HD28076-01)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economics of Agriculture and Food Markets
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Keywords
- nutrition transition, dietary fat intake, vegetable oils, food availability, income and diet, urbanization, food security, childhood obesity, sweetener consumption, low-income countries, Asian diet
- MeSH terms
- Diet, Humans, Income, Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Urbanization, Global Health
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