Navigation
Barry Popkin’s “Nutrition Transition” concept refers to the large-scale shifts in populations’ diet and physical activity patterns that occur alongside economic and social change—especially the movement away from traditional diets high in whole foods and fiber toward more “Western” diets high in fats, sugars, animal products, and processed foods, with increased sedentary lifestyles. These changes are linked to the global rise in obesity and non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease and are described by Popkin in a five-stage framework that marks the transition from hunter-gatherer diets through periods of famine, receding famine, to current patterns of diet-related health risks, and finally, to potential shifts toward healthier behaviors in response to chronic disease.
Definition and context
Author and reviewer
Editorial responsibility
Written by
The Center for Nutritional Psychology
Reviewed by
CNP Encyclopedia Editorial Board
Citation guidance
How to cite this entry
The Center for Nutritional Psychology. (2025). Nutrition Transition. In Encyclopedia of Nutritional Psychology. The Center for Nutritional Psychology.
https://www.nutritional-psychology.org/encyclopedia/nutrition-transition/
Contribute to the ENP
Know a term that belongs in the Encyclopedia?
Share a nutritional psychology term with the CNP editorial team for consideration. Relevant submissions may be reviewed for future development and publication in the Encyclopedia of Nutritional Psychology.
Submission does not guarantee publication.
