Judith Monroe, et al., “Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control: A Framework for Action,” Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (Summer 2009 Supplement)

This symposium article, co-authored by public health officials and a lawmaker, an attorney and a physician, presents the legal perspective on obesity prevention and control and focuses, for the most part, on public health laws and initiatives that have begun to address issues that affect obesity. The examples cited include laws regulating the nutritional value of food available to students and children in child care programs, mandating physical activity for schoolchildren, imposing zoning or land-use restrictions to increase access to affordable healthy foods and limit access to high-calorie foods and beverages, and creating incentives to offer and enroll in wellness programs.

The article outlines how partnering with diverse stakeholders is essential “to design and apply law-based strategies” and provides examples of how this was done in several communities and resulted in nutrition labeling of food on restaurant menus and incorporating physical activity projects in municipal development plans. The authors contend that policymakers do not yet have ready access “to the many types of information they need to make effective use of law and legal tools” to prevent and control obesity. They refer to tobacco control as “a benchmark” for this element of obesity control, noting the many ways that information and technical assistance have been developed and disseminated for use by government officials and public health advocates in this arena.

This paper emerged from a 2008 National Summit on Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control, and it refers to the summit’s proceedings as one resource for policymakers. It also provides citations to other resources and toolkits that can help establish laws and ordinances in the nature of “structural public health interventions,” such as “statutes on smoke-free air and ordinances instituting fluoridation of drinking water” that work “by making healthy living a default option.”