The Nutrition Transition in Developing Asia: Dietary Change, Drivers and Health Impacts

Abstract

This chapter reviews the likely consequences of dietary change for human health and wellbeing in Asia where a transition is occurring from diets dominated by low fat, high fibre foods to increased consumption of processed and packaged convenience foods. These foods are higher in fats, sugars and salt and are linked to increased rates of diet-related non-communicable disease. The chapter traces between-country differences and considers the drivers of dietary change including economic growth and rising incomes, the effects of urbanization and changing family size, the industrialization of food systems and the liberalization of world trade. While levels of malnutrition have declined throughout the region, rates of obesity ad overweight have increased raising challenging questions for nutrition policy planners. Keywords Nutrition transition Á Dietary change Á Population health Á Obesity Á Asia What Is the Nutrition Transition? Throughout human history there have been profound shifts in population diets and these shifts inevitably have impacted on nutritional status and population health. In recent decades a particularly rapid process of change has been observed, first in high income countries but now also in low and middle income settings (Popkin 2002a, b; Drenowski and Popkin 1997; Popkin et al. 2012; Kearney 2010). Diets dominated by starchy, low variety, low fat, high fiber foods are being replaced by consumption of processed foods higher in fats, sugars and salt, and accompanied by rises in diet-related non-communicable disease. These changes in population diet

Street food in Dushanbe, Tajikistan: availability and nutritional value

“…In spite of not assessing the essential characteristics of each of the nutrition transition stages, the evidence suggests that the country, and particularly the urban Dushanbe, is moving to stage 4, degenerative disease (30) . This stage is characterised by an increased consumption of processed beverages and food rich in sugar and fat, associated with the evolution of food-transforming technologies, and a decreased consumption of nutrient-dense food such as fruits and vegetables (1,4) .…”

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