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

Barry Popkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2008

Fast Food Nation meets The World Is Flat in this eye-opening look at the obesity epidemic.

Today, the planet’s 1.3 billion overweight people by far outnumber the 700 million who are undernourished. This figure would have seemed ludicrous just fifty years ago, when hunger was the world’s most pressing nutritional problem.

In The World Is Fat, Barry Popkin argues that the fattening of the human race is not simply about that next cheeseburger; rather, it is a result of an unprecedented collision of human biology with trends in technology, globalization, government policy, and the food industry that are changing how we eat and how we live.

Popkin, whose expertise in both nutrition and economics makes him uniquely qualified to write this book, compares our lifestyles today with those of half a century ago through the stories of five families living in the United States, Mexico, and India. He shows how increasing access to media and exposure to advertising, a powerful food industry, the rise of Wal-Mart like shopping centers, and a dramatic decline in physical activity are clashing with millions of years of human evolution, creating a world of overweight people with debilitating health problems such as diabetes. Ultimately, Popkin contends that widespread obesity is less a result of poor individual dietary choices than about a hi-tech, interconnected world in which governments and multinational corporations have extraordinary power to shape our everyday lives.

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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Review

“The global obesity epidemic affects all of us - families, communities, and nations around the world. It's a weighty subject in every way, with dire consequences for well being, life expectancy, and economic productivity in the years ahead unless seriously confronted. The World is Fat is compelling reading on this complex and growing societal threat. Dr. Barry Popkin is one of the world's most distinguished experts on obesity, the global food system, and nutrition, with extensive first-hand knowledge of the trends in the U.S., Europe, India, China, and beyond. His writing is remarkably clear and concise, free of jargon, and full of wisdom, balance, and good judgment. His call to action and practical suggestions to individuals, communities, and political leaders, will be read with enormous interest and benefit around the world.”
— Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, author of The End of Poverty and Common Wealth

“This personal, warmly sympathetic account of the makings of the global obesity crisis is just what is needed to figure out what to do about it. Popkin is an economist, but a humanistic one, and his humanity shines through in this book.”
—Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat and Food Politics, and professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University

“The most serious epidemic ever is insidiously engulfing the world. Barry Popkin draws upon his decades of research and experience to describe its origins—and a set of potential solutions. Those interested in the future of mankind should read this book.”
—Walter Willett, author of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, and chair, Department of Nutrition, Harvard University

“Popkin’s research contributions and insights into food and nutrition have inspired scores of scholars. In The World is Fat, he now inspires parents and consumers about what we can do to help our families and ourselves.”
—Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

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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: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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 Hale (Utah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fatteningthe Human Race (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 16 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 

Anonymous Bargain Hunter - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fatteningthe Human Race (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 (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products That Are Fattening the Human Race (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.