Strategies for promoting healthier food choices (original) (raw)
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Preventing obesity: What should we eat? - eScholarship
2007
To curb the escalating rates of obesity in California and across the nation, it is imperative to identify dietary behaviors that prevent excessive weight gain. Reports in the press are often conflicting and more often confuse than clarify the issue of what people should eat to prevent obesity. We recently conducted a comprehensive review of the literature published between 1992 and 2003 on the dietary determinants of obesity in children and adults. We examined secular trend data, mechanistic research, observational studies and prevention trials. We found that the dietary factors related to increased obesity were high intakes of dietary fat, sweetened beverages and restaurant-prepared foods, and the increased likelihood of skipping breakfast. Factors most likely to protect against obesity were the higher consumption of dietary fiber, fruits and vegetables, calcium and dairy products.
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2012
There is a pressing need to reduce both the prevalence and impact of obesity. This review begins with a discussion of the roles of treatment and prevention. Two overriding issues, weight bias and the addictive nature of food, are covered because of their importance not only to the individuals affected but also to public policy. We then cover promising policy areas in which changes can be implemented to support healthy behaviors: school policy, food marketing, food labeling and packaging, and taxes on unhealthy foods. The roles of the food industry and federal, state, and local governments are also discussed. 405 Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2012.8:405-430. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Yale University -SOCIAL SCIENCE LIBRARY on 09/10/12. For personal use only.
Obesity: Health and Food Policy Dilemma
2000
There are two streams in the literature on the economics of obesity. Short-run perspective is one related to the contemporary prevalence of obesity and its associated costs. Long-run perspective looks at the trends in human longevity, and relationship between physical characteristics of the population such as height, weight, or posture and their effect on health and longevity. Although both approaches rely on medical research and other scientific results as their basis, their findings are different. Short-run studies emphasize a strong link between obesity and deteriorating health of the American population and suggest immediate government intervention of various sorts. Long-run studies indicate how obesity and overweight may not be associated with many health problems that short-run studies suggest that they are. This scientific uncertainty leads to a difficult policy dilemma: is obesity a major health problem that demands government attention in terms of health and food policy intervention?