ArticlePublic health nutrition2021
Is the world converging to a 'Western diet'?
Article in Public health nutrition, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Anti-inflammatory diets and mental health: a scoping review of randomized controlled trials and systematic evidence syntheses.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Carbohydrate Intake and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Assessment of Food Consumption Frequency Among Schoolchildren: Cross-Sectional Study from an Urbanized Region of Central Kazakhstan.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Dietary patterns in western patients with hidradenitis suppurativa: a cross-sectional study using the rapid prime diet quality screener.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Ultra-Processed Diets and Pediatric Acne: Insulin-mTOR Activation and Its Potential Role in Cutaneous Inflammation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Relationships between Food Pleasure and Worry, Eating Behaviors, and Cultural Attributes among Mexican American Adults.International journal of gastronomy and food science · 2026Article
- Legume Consumption in Relation to Ulcerative Colitis: A Case-Control Study.Current therapeutic research, clinical and experimental · 2026Article
- Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods and Biochemical Markers Predictive of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Self-Selected Pilot Sample of Muslim Adolescents in Melilla.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Socio-economic and rural-urban disparities in the double burden of childhood malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
- Article
- The Influence of Mediterranean and Western Dietary Patterns on Sensory Perception and Taste Sensitivity: A Study Among University Students.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Changes in food quality and habits in urban Ghana: evidence from a mixed-methods study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Designing and Developing a Population/Literature-Based Westernized Diet Index (WDI) and Its Relevance for Cardiometabolic Health.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Article
- Review
- Multivariate time series clustering analysis of the Global Dietary Database to uncover patterns in dietary trends (1990-2018).Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Diet and sociodemographic predictors of the double burden of malnutrition in urban Zimbabwe.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Review
- Dietary Habits and Their Correlation with Socio-Demographic Variables Among the Ethnic Hungarian Population of Romania.Nutrients · 2025Observational
- Burdens of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages in 184 countries.Nature medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo test the nutrition transition hypothesis of global dietary convergence to a 'Western diet'.
designConsumer-waste-adjusted FAO Food Balance Sheets are used to construct for each country a Western Diet Similarity Index (WSI), expressed as a ratio of calories from animal-sourced foods, oils, fats and sweeteners to total per capita calories. β-Convergence and associated speed are estimated by growth regressions using 1992-2013 panel data. Speed of convergence, a non-linear function of income per capita, globalisation and urbanisation, determines the steady-state or long-term global WSI. The long-term global WSI is compared with the WSI of the group of countries with the highest population-weighted average WSI. The group, determined by K-means cluster analysis, consists of sixteen Western countries.
settingWorldwide.
participantsNot applicable.
resultsStrong evidence of global dietary convergence at a speed driven by income per capita, globalisation and urbanisation with a long-term WSI of 38 %. When compared with the WSI of Western countries (68 %), the hypothesis of global dietary convergence to a Western diet is rejected.
conclusionsThe nutrition transition is acting in two opposing directions. Some countries experienced positive and others negative WSI growth, slowing down the transition to a Western diet in the long run. Policies to further slowdown the transition by some countries to unhealthier dietary patterns are as important as policies to further speed up the transition by other countries to healthier ones.
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