All are invited to the CEDAR Seminar:
The Nutrition Transition: Current High Income Country and Global Dynamics
Professor Barry Popkin
Ph.D., W.R. Keenan, Jr Distinguished Professor of Nutrition
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
When: Monday 23 January, 4:30pm
Where: Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, Robinson Way, Cambridge, CB2 0RE.
Seminar abstract
While it is clear that the transition toward a diet, activity pattern and drinking pattern linked with increases in obesity and many nutrition-related cardiometabolic problems has rapidly engulfed the globe, we are less aware of a new set of shifts that may again accelerate change in both high and low income countries. These shifts occur globally as food systems shift towards higher levels of processed and precooked dishes and inactivity levels continue to accelerate while activity levels decline. A new set of eating behavior changes, possibly linked with more focused and effective marketing but whose causes are not truly understood, are occurring. Simultaneously, while we push for a return to consumption of food, the true nature of our food supply is seeing the emergence of hundreds of thousands of new processed foods and a marked change in how and when we eat. Some of this relates to the collision between human biology, shaped over the millennia and modern technology, globalization, government policies, and food industry practices. These clashes between our biology and modern food systems, possibly personified by the shift from water and breast milk toward an array of caloric beverage options, continues to accelerate. Aside from the role of beverages, there is much less consensus about the various components of our diet and its role in energy imbalance. But we can measure these changes and understand the modern food system. Understanding the components of change of our diet through an array of research provides insights into some of the options we face in attempting to attain a great balance between energy intake and expenditures while creating an overall healthier dietary pattern.
Biography
Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, at UNC-CH. He has a PhD in economics and established the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology at UNC.
He has developed the concept of the Nutrition Transition, the study of the dynamic shifts in dietary intake, physical activity patterns, trends and obesity, and other nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. His research program focuses globally on understanding the shifts in stages of the transition and programs and policies to improve the population health linked with this transition (see www.nutrans.org). He has started and managed a number of long-term cohort studies in China, Russia, the Philippines, and is involved in extensive work, particularly on the dietary side, in the United States. His research is primarily funded by a large number of NIH R01’s and included large long-term studies in the US and many countries across the globe. He also leads a current large-scale evaluation of the impact of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation’s changes in the food supply as they affect US children. He is actively involved at the national and global level in policy formulation work with many national governments, was a member of the G-7 group of economists who worked to reform the former Soviet Union and Russian Federation, and currently, among public service activities he is currently chairing for the Mexican Ministry of Health a scientific panel creating a new front-of-package labeling system for Mexico. He has been cited about 8800 times and is one of the most cited nutrition and obesity scholars in the world, and is the author of a book titled the WORLD IS FAT (January 2009, Avery-Penguin Publishers).
