Nutrition transition in emerging countries.

Summary Over the last decades the composition of the diet has changed: fat and sugar have partially replaced fiber in the diet. This nutritional transition represents a challenge in terms of public health: a diet high in fat and sugar is a major risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While high-income countries were the first to be affected by this nutritional transition, middle-income countries are now affected, and the consequences in terms of public health are particularly severe in these countries. This thesis aims to better understand the causes and determinants of the nutritional transition in emerging countries. The first chapter focuses on the respective roles of the two main dimensions of globalization - the economic and the social - in diet change. We conclude that the social dimension of globalization (access to other cultures through the Internet and television) plays a more important role in these changes than the integration of emerging countries into the world economy. The second chapter builds on the results of the first, and analyzes one aspect of the social dimension of globalization: advertising and television programming. I use data on the case of Indonesia to estimate the effects of access to private television channels during childhood on diet in adulthood. The results suggest that product and lifestyle information broadcast on television leads to high consumption of "snacks" and sodas. The third chapter examines another determinant of food choice, short-term temperature changes, using data from Mexico. Estimates indicate that in high temperatures individuals increase their consumption of sodas, not water. This effect is related to changes in the consumption patterns of people who usually enjoy and buy sodas: in hot weather, they give in to their cravings more easily. This result validates the hypothesis of an impulsive behavioral response to temperature changes.