Chapter Nine. The Nutrition Transition and Obesity in China (3-9)

This article draws on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as a means to analyse social distinction and change in terms of class and gender through the lens of food consumption. By focusing on urban Vietnam, this qualitative study looks into the daily practices of food consumption, dieting and working on the body as specific means to enact ideal body types. Economically booming Vietnam has attracted growing investment capital in the fields of body and beauty industries and food retail. After decades of food insecurity, urban consumers find themselves manoeuvring in between growing food and lifestyle options, a nutrition transition, and contradicting demands on the consumer to both indulge and restrain themselves. Taking this dynamic urban context as its point of departure and adopting an intersectional perspective, this article assesses how eating, dieting and body performance are applied in terms of making class and doing gender. It shows that the growing urban landscape of food and body-centric industries facilitates new possibilities for distinction, dependent not only on economic capital but on bodily and cultural capital also, and furthermore, how social habitus regarding food–body relationships are gendered and interlaced with class privilege.

Download Full-text

Nutrition transition in a middle-income country: 22-year trends in the Seychelles

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition ◽

10.1038/ejcn.2012.199 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 67 (2) ◽

pp. 135-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

I Cardoso ◽

P Bovet ◽

B Viswanathan ◽

A Luke ◽

P Marques-Vidal

Keyword(s):

Nutrition Transition ◽

Middle Income Country ◽

Income Country ◽

Middle Income

Download Full-text

Dietary Patterns and Nutritional Health of Women: The Nutrition Transition in Rural Tanzania

Food and Nutrition Bulletin ◽

10.1177/156482651103200306 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 218-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Gudrun B. Keding ◽

John M. Msuya ◽

Brigitte L. Maass ◽

Michael B. Krawinkel

Keyword(s):

Dietary Patterns ◽

Nutrition Transition ◽

Rural Tanzania ◽

Nutritional Health

Download Full-text

The nutrition transition in amazonia: Rapid economic change and its impact on growth and development in Ribeirinhos

American Journal of Physical Anthropology ◽

10.1002/ajpa.21459 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 146 (1) ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Barbara A. Piperata ◽

Jennifer E. Spence ◽

Pedro Da-Gloria ◽

Mark Hubbe

Keyword(s):

Growth And Development ◽

Economic Change ◽

Nutrition Transition

Download Full-text

An overview of the nutrition transition in West Africa: implications for non-communicable diseases

Proceedings of The Nutrition Society ◽

10.1017/s0029665114001669 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 74 (4) ◽

pp. 466-477 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

William K. Bosu

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

West Africa ◽

Nutrition Transition ◽

Overweight And Obesity ◽

Cape Verde ◽

Fruit And Vegetables ◽

Food Groups ◽

African Countries ◽

Food And Beverage ◽

Dual Burden

The nutrition landscape in West Africa has been dominated by the programmes to address undernutrition. However, with increasing urbanisation, technological developments and associated change in dietary patterns and physical activity, childhood and adult overweight, and obesity are becoming more prevalent. There is an evidence of increasing intake of dietary energy, fat, sugars and protein. There is low consumption of fruit and vegetables universally in West Africa. Overall, the foods consumed are predominantly traditional with the component major food groups within recommended levels. Most of the West African countries are at the early stages of nutrition transition but countries such as Cape Verde, Ghana and Senegal are at the latter stages. In the major cities of the region, children consume energy-dense foods such as candies, ice cream and sweetened beverages up to seven times as frequently as fruit and vegetables. Adult obesity rates have increased by 115 % in 15 years since 2004. In Ghana, the prevalence of overweight/obesity in women has increased from 12·8 % in 1993 to 29·9 % in 2008. In Accra, overweight/obesity in women has increased from 62·2 % in 2003 to 64·9 % in 2009. The age-standardised proportion of adults who engage in adequate levels of physical activity ranges from 46·8 % in Mali to 94·7 % in Benin. The lingering stunting in children and the rising overweight in adults have resulted to a dual burden of malnutrition affecting 16·2 % of mother–child pairs in Cotonou. The prevalence of hypertension has been increased and ranges from 17·6 % in Burkina Faso to 38·7 % in Cape Verde. The prevalence is higher in the cities: 40·2 % in Ougadougou, 46·0 % in St Louis and 54·6 % in Accra. The prevalence of diabetes ranges from 2·5 to 7·9 % but could be as high as 17·9 % in Dakar, Senegal. The consequences of nutrition transition are not only being felt by the persons in the high socioeconomic class, but also in cities such as Accra and Ouagadougou, where at least 19 % of adults from the poorest households are overweight and 19–28 % have hypertension. Concerted national action involving governments, partners, private sector and civil society is needed to re-orient health systems and build capacity to address the dual burden of malnutrition, to regulate the food and beverage industry and to encourage healthy eating throughout the life course.

Download Full-text

Association between the Socioeconomic Status of Households and a More Sustainable Diet

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s136898002100402x ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-25

Author(s):

Hassan Eini-Zinab ◽

Nargeskhatoon Shoaibinobarian ◽

Golnaz Ranjbar ◽

Andisheh Norouzian Ostad ◽

Seyyed Reza Sobhani

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Energy Intake ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Nutrition Transition ◽

Dietary Quality ◽

Fish Eggs ◽

Sustainable Diet ◽

Independent Variable ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Socioeconomic Data

Abstract Objective: A sustainable diet is an affordable diet with low environmental impact, high food security, and sufficient healthiness. The present study aimed to assess the correlation between the socioeconomic status of households and a sustainable diet. Design: The food basket and socioeconomic data of Iranian households were evaluated during 2016-2018. The households were classified based on the sustainability of their diet by determining the dietary carbon footprint, dietary water footprint, lower dietary costs of the household than the median, and a higher dietary quality index than the median. Logistic regression was used with four models to calculate the odds ratio (OR) of a more sustainable diet as the dependent variable regarding the different quartiles of socioeconomic status (SES) as the independent variable. Setting: Iran. Participants: Iranian households (n 102,303), nationally representative, were studied. Results: Lower SES was associated with the higher OR of a sustainable diet (OR: 0.90; CI: 0.87-0.91). Higher quartiles of SES compared to the lower SES group indicated the higher energy intake and consumption of more dairies, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, legumes, nuts, and fruits, as well as the lower intake of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. Conclusion: In countries such as Iran, where nutrition transition occurs rapidly, better economic and social levels in the populations with a higher SES are associated with increased energy intake and higher consumption of animal-based foods, which decreases sustainable diets compared to the groups with a lower SES.

Download Full-text