Federal Government Focuses Attention on Obesity; Childhood Obesity Articles Proliferate
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions conducted a hearing March 4, 2010, to address childhood obesity. Among those testifying was U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, who provided an overview of the “epidemic,” examples of successful individual and community interventions and recent federal initiatives to “help Americans achieve optimal health.” She claimed that keeping pregnancy weight gain within recommended limits and breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months after birth have been shown to prevent childhood obesity.
Benjamin also called for changing social and physical environments to support families in making healthy choices. Among the changes she recommended were increasing exposure and access to healthy affordable foods and making physical activity opportunities more accessible. Others testifying during the hearing included a Pittsburgh Steelers running back and a representative of the Robert Woods Johnson (RWJ) Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity.
The foundation sponsored a Health Affairs briefing on childhood obesity on March 2 to introduce the journal’s March 2010 issue, which is devoted to combating childhood obesity. Among the topics addressed during the briefing were current trends in childhood obesity; what contributes to the problem; what solutions can be implemented; and what roles government, schools, businesses and families can play in
addressing the issue. A number of policy briefs made available discuss, among other matters, “The Role of Agriculture Policy in Reducing Childhood Obesity,” “Speeding Up Progress in Fighting Obesity in Schools,” “Lessons from States on Fighting Childhood Obesity,” “The Pervasive Effects of Environments on Childhood Obesity,” and “Food Marketing and Distribution’s Role in the Fight Against Childhood Obesity.” The latter cites research linking food marketing and distribution to “adding pounds to children”; it recommends “limiting advertising directed at children that tries to influence them to purchase unhealthy and high-calorie foods.”
Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Susan Dentzer introduces the March issue by calling childhood obesity “a form of child abuse with horrific consequences.” Among the articles appearing in the journal is one co-authored by Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Director Kelly Brownell titled “Personal Responsibility and Obesity: A Constructive Approach to a Controversial Issue”; another is titled “Childhood Obesity: The New Tobacco.” Many were financially supported in part by the RWJ Foundation.
The Brownell article contends that the “centerpiece of food industry arguments against government action” is blaming obesity on the “irresponsibility of individuals.” The article points to research purportedly showing instead that behaviors related to diet and activity are highly responsive to “access, pricing, portions, marketing, and other powerful [external] drivers.” Claiming that “individualistic and public health views can be reconciled,” the article calls for collective action to support personal responsibility, saying this is “central to public health.” The actions recommended include restaurant menu labeling, healthy foods in schools, regulation of food marketing and food ingredients, and imposing taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.
The article comparing childhood obesity to tobacco asserts that tobacco control was “a successful public health movement because of shifts in social norms and because cigarette companies came to be perceived by many as a common enemy.” The authors contend that framing obesity the same way “can lead to consensus regarding the interventions needed to achieve healthier children and communities.” They call for building a broad movement for obesity prevention that includes framing obesity as a threat, taxing high-calorie food and beverages, making changes to the existing “toxic food environment,” and bringing about “true cooperation and change by the food industry . . . rather than delays and diversionary actions.”
In a related development, the Food Marketing to Children Workgroup recently submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of inquiry on “Empowering Parents and Protecting Children in an Evolving Media Landscape.” The workgroup apparently represents numerous individuals and organizations “concerned about the proliferation of food and beverage marketing targeting children and adolescents.” Among other matters addressed in the group’s comments are the “risks of electronic and digital media to children and adolescents,” First Amendment issues related to “regulating food marketing to children,” and “effective coordination of government efforts to protect children and adolescents in an evolving digital media and marketing landscape.”
The workgroup calls for improving industry’s self-regulatory efforts, including an FCC rulemaking proceeding “to examine what more it can do to address food marketing to children within its current statutory authority,” efforts to support the Federal Trade Commission’s initiatives to address behavioral advertising and mobile marketing to children, and the elimination of advertising for high-calorie and low-nutrient food and beverage products.
