The Author, the Book

Barry Popkin
40 Years of Research

Barry M. Popkin has a Ph.D. in economics and is Professor of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he directs the University's Interdisciplinary Center for Obesity.

“I first became interested in nutrition in 1965, when I spent a year in India as part of a fully funded college year abroad. I lived in Old Delhi in a jhuggi-jhompri cluster—the Indian term for the shantytowns that are built wherever land is available. It was one of the most densely populated areas in the world—a residential slum teeming with life. People lived on top of each other in primitive one-story structures in a vibrant cacophony of smells, noises, and dress. Sanitation was horrendous and poverty was the norm. Hunger was widespread.

After returning to the United States and completing college, I got a job at the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. I was also actively involved with the McGovern Committee on Hunger in America, which was creating and expanding a range of programs intended to reduce undernutrition. Thus began my career studying food and nutrition from the perspective of economics.”

The World is Fat, The Book

“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.”

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of The End of Poverty and Common Wealth

“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