Linking Obesity and Malnutrition

Abstract

The global obesity epidemic has recently spread to low- and middle-income countries increasing comorbid disease burdens across the economic spectrum. International obesity scholarship tends to postulate obesity through economic development, which increases caloric access. Yet obesity is increasingly associated with poor nutrition in developed and developing countries. In this study, using panel data from 1980 to 2007, I examine the effects of obesogenic calories, urban poverty, and malnutrition on two obesity-related dependent variables—obesity prevalence and average body mass index—in low-income countries. Findings suggest that obesity is more clearly associated with chronic malnutrition than with unhealthy calories afforded by economic development. Approaches to global obesity can be productively seen as a factor of food access inequality in conjunction with food insecurity.

Keywords:

• food insecurity
• malnutrition
• obesity