“WESTERN” CHRONIC DISEASES IN
CHILDHOOD: A GLOBAL PROBLEM
Deckelbaum RJ
Columbia University, Institute of Human
Nutrition, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY, USA
The last few decades have witnessed
global changes in economic development, communication, and lifestyles which
have the potential to impact upon the risk of adult chronic diseases – even
in countries which have had much lower prevalence rates than in Europe or
North America. Recent “westernization”
of diet in different countries provides an opportunity to determine if
these and other lifestyle changes will impact upon chronic disease risk
factors in children and their potential contribution to risk of
atherosclerosis-related diseases in the adult population. High blood cholesterol levels,
obesity, and type II diabetes are now prevalent in countries where these
were previously very infrequent in children. Comparisons among different racial-ethnic populations
living in different areas also offers an opportunity to consider whether
changing nutrient intakes will result in similar or disparate responses in
various populations and if genetic differences between different
populations might impact upon the effect of diet on chronic disease risk
factors. This might provide
some evidence for gene-environment interactions as important modulators in
expression of chronic disease risk in different populations.