The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fatteningthe Human Race [Hardcover]

Barry Popkin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 26, 2008

A compelling look at the global trends that have led to today's obesity crisis

The planet's 1.6 billion overweight people by far outnumber the 700 million who are undernourished. This figure would have seemed ludicrous just fifty years ago. As a result of unprecedented trends in technology, globalization, government policy, and the food industry that are changing how we eat, drink, and move, we now live in a world populated by overweight people with debilitating health problems.

In this fascinating look at the striking changes in both our lifestyles and food system since World War II, Barry Popkin shows how present options for eating and drinking- especially when combined with a dramatic reduction in physical activity-are clashing with millions of years of evolution to fatten the human race. Popkin argues that widespread obesity-and the chronic health problems that contribute to the bulk of deaths in the world-is less a result of poor dietary choices than about a hi-tech, interconnected world in which governments and multinational corporations have extraordinary power to shape our everyday lives.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Popkin, a renowned obesity and nutrition expert, investigates what the World Health Organization has defined as a global obesity epidemic, identifying familiar culprits (nutrient-poor, sugar-rich foods; larger serving sizes and less exercise)—but introduces fresh research to demonstrate how our drinking habits have contributed to the problem. The author follows the expanding waistlines of four families in the United States, Mexico and India to argue that obesity is less a result of gluttony and sloth than a confluence of factors rooted in a fundamental conflict between human biology and modern society, where more calories are consumed than expended, and governments and multinational corporations shape everyday lives (a detailed section traces the growth of modern food and beverage conglomerates). Unfortunately, the book remains a disjointed portrayal of this thesis: Popkin never fully explores the impact of energy drinks and sodas and interrupts his observations of the four families to wax nostalgic (and unscientific) on his youthful dietary and exercise habits in rural Wisconsin. The salience and urgency of the obesity epidemic is incontrovertible, however, and Popkins is a readable and ambitious introduction. (Jan.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Avery (December 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583333134
• ISBN-13: 978-1583333136
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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. Prior to his academic work he was a 1960's full time civil rights and community organizer for several years. Subsequently he returned, obtained his PhD and has lived in India, the Philippines and for shorter periods in Thailand, China, Brazil, Mexico and other lower income countries and worked on diet, activity and body composition an obesity issues in both the US, Europe and the low and middle income world. He has developed the concept of the Nutrition Transition, the study of the dynamic shifts in dietary intake and physical activity patterns and trends and obesity and other nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases and 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). This includes an array of US long-term research projects. His international research is equally large-scale. Popkin directs longitudinal surveys in China and Russia and is also involved in survey research in other countries, including Brazil, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, India, Norway and the Philippines. He is actively involved at the national and global level in policy formulation for many countries, particularly Mexico and China. He has published 370 refereed journal articles, is one of the most cited nutrition scholars in the world.

You can learn more about Barry Popkin and his research program and activities by going to: www.nutrans.org

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A well written essay on the obesity epidemic January 10, 2009

By Kristine Lofgren VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The name Barry Popkin carries some real clout in the nutrition/obesity research world, so I was excited to read his opinions and thoughts, and I cruised through this book in one night. The author starts out with the story of his life growing up in the 50's and the lives of a few other families in India and China, and he returns to them throughout the book. Although I don't feel that the individual stories make a convincing argument for why the world is fat, they do make the book immensely enjoyable and extremely easy to relate to.

What does make a convincing argument is the well-researched data that peppers this book, pointing the finger firmly at a one-two-three punch of the sudden drop in activity in our lives, the over-abundance of nutritionally void foods and the governmental/corporate intervention into our eating habits. While not a new theory, it is a new take that is a pleasure to read.

Where this book falls short is that the author doesn't really take the story to a conclusion. He touches on why we are fat but never really reaches an answer, touches on what obesity does to us but never really drives the point home, and touches on what we can do about it without ever really laying down any firm resolution. I would have liked to see less conjecture about liquid calories and more facts about the changes in our world. I found myself leaving the book with more questions than I started with.

The book clocks in at a light 170 pages of meat in a large font, and as such, it makes a great introduction, but not a great answer, to a very serious question.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking book on global food and obesity trends March 30, 2009

By Amazon Addict

Format:Hardcover

"The World is Fat" is yet another book about the obesity epidemic and the need for weight control and increased activity in our culture. What makes this book different is that the entire world is included. Before reading this book, I didn't know that so many other countries are in the same boat as the U.S., whether they are a "developed" country such as Australia, or an emerging nation, such as Chile or Mexico. What an amazing change in just a handful of years! According to the statistics in this book, over 51% of Chileans are overweight or obese. I lived in Chile for a short time during the mid-90's and I RARELY saw overweight people. In fact, the Chileans would ask me why so many Americans were fat because it was rare in their culture to see heavy people. Also interesting were the author's comparisons of life in the 50's to present-day in terms of food intake and activity level. This book shines in all of the cold, hard facts it gives you, both in terms of calories then and now, and in terms of historical comparisons from the 50s, 60s, 80s and now.

I do not believe, though, that this book is 100% correct in its opinions or its research. To give a small example, the author mentions that in Europe (specifically France, Spain, and Italy) it's not uncommon to see small children drink wine with meals and says that in his opinion this "clearly" is why their youth have less problems with alcohol than our nation. I have heard many people throw this around as if it's both truth and common knowledge "yeah, in France they let little kids drink!" Having lived in both France and Spain, I would ask people if they let their children drink wine. I expected to hear "yes," but the answer was an overwhelming no! They do have a drinking age over there (16). Likewise, in all of the family gatherings and parties I attended in either country, I NOT ONCE saw a small child given alcohol. Maybe Barry Popkin also needs to realize that in France and Spain, at least, one major reason for less binge drinking on the part of the youth is that the cultures consider it an embarrassment and a disgrace to be drunk, whereas our culture finds it "funny". The adults don't drink to a stupor and so neither do the kids, but in our culture where the older generation drinks too much and makes light of it (as well as overwhelming media support of drunk=entertaining), introducing alcohol at an earlier age would probably just give us more poor behavior at even younger ages unless our culture stops socially encouraging and tolerating drunkenness.

The strong points of the book are its history of food intake, its explanation of food politics (fascinating to read about how the foods that are subsidized in our country are the opposite of what we're needing to eat). There are also some ideas put on the table of how we might go about encouraging the culture as a whole to change its eating habits (with the methods most likely to succeed being those that hit people in the pocketbook).

I would not recommend this book on an individual level for someone who's looking for a way to lose weight, nor is it billed as such. The author is not a weight loss expert and his ideas are: 1)eliminate drink calories, 2)find a way to get more active, and 3) eliminate unhealthy foods from your diet until the weight is gone (a few weeks to a month). Of course, someone who has a true weight problem is not going to be "done" in the course of a month or less! The author also states that the human diet from our "gathering" stage was our healthiest time nutritionally, with almost all of our diet composed of berries and grasses/leaves, though by the end of the book, he makes it clear that the diet he advocates encourages fruits and vegetables however, and most importantly, is one that is lower in calories, regardless of whether you eat red meat, dairy, etc.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars couldn't finish it September 4, 2009

By C. P. Anderson

Format:Hardcover

I hate to write a review for a book I didn't finish, but I felt I just had to for this one. This book is okay, but there were two things about it that rather drove me to distraction.

For one, I really didn't see much in here that I haven't seen somewhere else. High-fructose corn syrup in sodas? Check. Americans don't get enough exercise? Check. Weight is a simple matter of calories in minus calories expended? Check. Larger serving sizes? Check. The rest of the world following bad American habits? Check.

The other was Popkin's writing style. It was a little hard to put my finger on it, but it seemed rather choppy. Sentences tended to be very punchy and short, with poor transitions from one to another. Paragraphs sometimes covered several, not-especially-related topics.

I really wanted to finish this one, but between these two problems, I just felt I had to get up from the table and move onto something a little more nourishing.