Influences of the Nutrition Transition on Chronic Disease

Abstract

The term nutrition transition coined in the early 1990s by Barry Popkin describes global alterations in diet structure, body composition, and physical activity patterns, with a special emphasis on emerging economies undergoing rapid demographic, socioeconomic, and acculturative changes. The health-related outcomes of these shifts in the form of non-communicable chronic degenerative diseases (NCDs) have been well described in the industrialized world over the past four decades. There is growing evidence that these changes are extending to the developing world, specifically the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) depending on the degree of socio-economic development achieved. Large segments of the global population are consequently affected. Furthermore, these changes in emerging economies are occurring at a rapid pace, younger age, and in an environment where infectious and nutrition-related deficiency diseases continue to persist. Consequently, these economies face a double burden of disease wherein the struggles of undernutrition coexist with the maladies of overnutrition within the same individual, family, or community. This paradox poses important challenges in mitigating the unhealthy aspects of nutrition transition from a public health perspective.