IOM Issues Workshop Summary on Trends in Food and Beverage Marketing to Children

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has issued a pre-publication summary of its workshop “New Challenges and Opportunities for Change in Food Marketing to Children and Youth.” Conducted by IOM’s Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention, the November 5, 2012, workshop featured “presentations and discussion on contemporary trends in marketing of foods and beverages to children and youth and the implications of those trends for obesity prevention.” According to IOM, “[t]he childhood obesity epidemic is an urgent public health problem, and it will continue to take a substantial toll on the health of Americans. The most recent data show that almost a third of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese.”