BOSTON —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
With some victories under their belts and some scientific data documenting the effects of antiobesity measures in the United States and abroad, the Public Health Advocacy Institute turned its attention to the next federal administration and began cobbling together an agenda that could include taxing high-calorie ingredients, restricting food marketing to children, encouraging funding for more mass transit and biking and walking trails, and mandating the cultivation of more vegetables. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Although menu labeling was clearly on their agenda, litigation against restaurants for contributing to obesity was not discussed, and lawyers who led the charges in those efforts in the past did not attend the meeting. Neither did representatives from the Center for Science in the Public interest, which opposes the use of fatty and high-sugar foods, nor those from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal rights organization that rails against meat and dairy products. Both groups had been represented in prior years. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Emily Spieler, dean of the Northeast University School of Law, of which the PHAI is a part, told attendees in her opening remarks not to make assumptions about prior uses of law in addressing obesity. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
“It’s an exercise in creativity,” she said of the conference. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Marice Ashe of the Public Health Institute in Oakland, Calif., discussed strategies deemed relatively easy to implement, such as having the federal government require businesses that work with it to have obesity prevention programs, much as they require drug testing at such workplaces. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Ashe said school boards could require distributors to supply food that met specified dietary criteria. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She also looked at zoning regulations, noting that fast-food drive-thru units already are regulated for aesthetic reasons and could be regulated based on their menus as well. She also suggested zoning rules be changed to require corner stores to carry fresh fruit. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Kathryn Henderson, director of school and community initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., pointed out that places where kids are, such as schools and day care, are licensed and so can be regulated. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
“Schools are in a position to reset the norms of eating for kids,” Henderson said, and could do that by providing more healthful foods. She advocated getting rid of “competitive foods” in schools, which are foods such as sugary snacks and sodas that are not part of the federally funded school food programs. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She cited data indicating that eliminating such foods did not result in schools losing money, as is often feared, because participation in the school lunch program goes up. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Jamie Chriqui of the University of Illinois at Chicago Health Policy Center examined how taxes on restaurant or other certain types of foods—such as those high in calories in general, or sugar or fat in particular—could affect consumption. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Pointing to tobacco taxes, she said taxes that increased prices by 10 percent resulted in a 4-percent reduction in usage. Admitting that not much research had been done yet on how prices of certain foods affected people’s weight, she said some studies have shown that cheaper fruits and vegetables do have some impact on both how much of those items are bought and on the weight of people who buy them. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She suggested that taxes be considered for syrups, powders, beverage bottles and restaurants, noting that “modest” taxes on such items could generate significant revenue for targeting obesity and that higher taxes could actually affect “consumption patterns and weight outcomes.” —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Lynn Silver, assistant commissioner of New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who coordinates the city’s anti-obesity efforts, including the menu-labeling law that was implemented earlier this year, reviewed the results of that law. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She also noted that the process of getting the law through the court system taught her valuable lessons. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
The original law required restaurants that already provided calorie information somewhere to put it directly on their menu boards. That law was deemed discriminatory, so they changed it to include all chains with 15 or more locations nationwide. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
That case is currently on appeal in the 2nd Circuit Court, but the city said it would start issuing fines July 18, and chain restaurants have since complied with the law, although many of them didn’t until they were threatened with fines, Silver said. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Since July 18 the department has been tracking what the chains are offering, what consumers are buying and which consumers are taking note of the calorie information. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Noting that menu labeling can affect not just what customers buy, but what they’re offered, she said that since the law’s enforcement, McDonald’s has managed to knock 70 calories off of its French fries, and Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC have shrunk the sizes of their donuts and wing orders, respectively. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
“But they’re not shrinking the prices,” she said. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She predicted that if the law is upheld on appeal, it could result in 150,000 fewer cases of obesity and 30,000 fewer cases of diabetes, which is closely correlated to obesity, over the next five years. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Silver recommended that PHAI support a federal mandatory regulation for posting calories on menus and menu boards, but only if that information is placed primarily on menus. She said that federal laws that pre-empt local regulations in this regard could be problematic. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Such a bill was recently proposed in the U.S. Senate and has received the support of many restaurant associations, including the National Restaurant Association and the National Council of Chain Restaurants. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She also recommended significant expansion of funding for prevention of chronic diseases such as obesity and said the federal government should “modernize” its approach to food safety, taking into account a need to reduce risk not just of foodborne illnesses but also of chronic disease from excessive consumption of calories, sodium, sugar, saturated fats and trans fats as well as limited access to fruit and vegetables. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
She pointed out that incidents of such chronic diseases have outstripped infectious ones. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Other recommendations were more long-term in scope. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Attorney Susan Roberts, director of the Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute’s Food & Society Policy Fellows Program in Columbia, Mo., advocated increasing production of and access to fruits and vegetables through federal legislation and policy. She said that the recently passed farm bill did provide for free fruits and vegetables in some low-income schools, and procurement of local food in preference to food from out of state is now allowed. She also stated that more fruits and vegetables needed to be under cultivation for all Americans to meet the government’s nine-a-day plan, which advocates eating nine daily servings of fruits or vegetables. She advocated greater funding for programs to improve the quality and quantity of fruits and vegetables in schools and removal of obstacles to planting fruits and vegetables. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Those obstacles include regulations that impose fines on farmers who grow different vegetables on land earmarked for subsidized crops such as corn and soybeans. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Visiting from France’s health ministry, Michel Chauliac, who coordinates that country’s national nutrition and health program, reviewed the results of that program, which France implemented in 2001. The program included encouraging traditional French values of dining as a family on traditional French food. A national decree on the nutritional quality of school meals, including paying attention to the taste of the food, was part of the program. So was providing free fruit to underprivileged school districts. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Since the program’s implementation, France’s obesity rates have stopped growing, Chauliac said. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
The same is true in Arkansas, said Kevin Ryan from that state’s Center for Health Improvement. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
The state implemented the country’s first statewide coordinated effort to address childhood and adolescent obesity in 2003. It established an advisory committee, addressed vending machines, required disclosure of school pouring contracts with beverage companies, established local parent advisory committees and conducted statewide screenings of children’s body-mass-index, a common measurement for obesity, and informed parents whose children were obese. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
The school also educated cafeteria workers with regard to nutrition and mandated 30 minutes per day of physical activity for all students from kindergarten through high school. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
Since then, students have reported buying more healthful drinks, parental awareness has been raised, schools have improved nutritional standards and the state’s obesity rate has leveled off, Ryan said. —Health watchdogs urged an alliance of activists and public-health officials meeting here recently to push the envelope of the legal system even harder to address the obesity epidemic, thereby adding to the group’s prior successes in backing new laws requiring calorie postings on menus and bans on sugary drinks at schools.
