Dr. Barry Popkin has done pioneering work on the ‘Nutrition Transition’, how commercial urbanization is altering diets, with consideration to environment, income, lifestyle and food availability. The nutrition transition examines how dietary habits are transitioning from tradition foods and food preparation methods towards increasing intakes of processed foods, which is resulting in serious impacts on public health.  Increasing obesity due to high caloric intake and sedentary lifestyles are greatly increasing demographics for instances of diabetes and heart disease.

In this video presentation at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Popkin explores global nutrition, how it is changing and what the implications are of these changes. Dr. Popkin’s book, The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fattening the Human Race (2008), should be on your reading list if you are interested in food policy, nutrition or public health.

In addition to this video lecture a short overview of Dr. Barry Popkin and his work can be found here.