12 - Trends in under- and overnutrition in Brazil

• Published in: The Nutrition Transition pp. 223 - 240
• Main Authors: Monteiro, Carlos, Conde, Wolney L., Popkin, Barry M.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Academic Press 2002
• ISBN: 0121536548; 9780121536541
• DOI: 10.1016/B978-012153654-1/50014-3

This chapter complements and updates analyses on specific aspects of the nutrition transition in Brazil. The process known as nutrition transition refers to major cyclical changes in the nutritional profile of human populations, produced by modifications in both dietary and nutrient expenditure patterns, and basically determined by an interplay of economic, demographic, environmental, and cultural changes occurring in the society. Outstanding changes in economic, demographic, environmental, and cultural factors have been registered in the last quarter of the 20th century in most developing countries, including Brazil but the impact of these changes on the nutritional profile of their populations is still to be fully assessed. The relative burden of disease, represented by under- and overnutrition, the pace of the transition process among children, adolescents and adults, and the distinct effects on the social classes are still unclear in these countries. Brazil is placed in a privileged position concerning the description of the nutrition transition process. First, demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural changes have been impressive in Brazil in the last quarter of the 20th century. Second, in Brazil, the availability of repeated nationally representative cross-sectional surveys provides a basis for the careful understanding of secular trends of the nutritional profile of its population. Third, Brazil has continental dimensions and great economic differences between the least-developed northern regions and the most-developed southern regions; this makes it possible to stage the process of the nutrition transition at different levels of economic development. Fourth, the strong uneven income distribution across the country permits the dynamics of the nutrition transition among the relatively poorer and richer social strata to be individualized and compared within each region.