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The world now has more overweight people than hungry ones and governments should design economic strategies to influence national diets, a conference of international experts have heard.
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The transition from a starving world to an obese one had happened with dramatic speed, US professor Barry Popkin told the annual conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists on Monday.

"The reality is that globally far more obesity than undernutrition exists," Popkin said, adding that while hunger was slowly declining, obesity was rapidly spreading. . . .

University of Minnesota professor Benjamin Senauer used a comparative study of lifestyles in the United States and Japan to show how the costs of food and transport play a role in the problem.

Japan has one of the world's lowest rates of obesity and the US one of the highest.

"The average Japanese household spends almost a quarter of its income on food compared to under 14 percent in the US," Senauer said.

While a direct tax on food in the US to reduce obesity would not be politically acceptable, agricultural subsidies which resulted in cheap food could be reduced.

But other factors such as exercise also played an important role and again economic influences were involved, he said.

"Japanese cities are based on efficient public transport -- and walking. The average American commutes to work, drives to the supermarket and does as little walking as possible."

The average Japanese man walks four miles (6.4 kilometres) a day while almost a quarter of US adults may only walk between 1,000 and 3,000 steps a day, Senauer said.