The Food Industry's Role in Rising Childhood Obesity Rates!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a little bit about rising obesity rates in children and adolescents (see this post for more details!) On May 6, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services released a report, outlining a series of steps the food industry can take to help in the battle against childhood obesity. As I indicated in my earlier post, the levels of childhood obesity have been skyrocketing since the early 80's. The report was the result of a workshop in which participants were urged "to examine the role of the private sector in addressing rising childhood obesity rates in the United States." The bottom line was simple -- although there are many causes for the increasing childhood obesity rates, "responsible marketing can play a positive role in improving children’s diets and exercise behavior."

Although the complete press release can be found here...

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/05/childhoodobesity.htm

Some of the report's recommendations include that food companies...

• Intensify their efforts to create new products and reformulate existing products to make them lower in calories, more nutritious, more appealing to children, and more convenient to prepare and eat
• Help consumers control portion sizes and calories through smaller portions, single-serving packages, and other packaging cues;
• Explore labeling initiatives, including icons and seals, to identify lower-calorie, nutritious foods clearly and in a manner that does not mislead consumers
• Review and revise their marketing practices with the goal of improving the overall nutritional profile of the foods marketed to children, for example, by adopting minimum nutritional standards for the foods they market to children, or by otherwise shifting emphasis to lower-calorie, more nutritious products
• Generally explore ways to improve efforts to educate consumers about nutrition and fitness, with simple and effective messages
• Review and revise their policies to improve the overall nutritional profile of the products they market and sell in schools.

If you're interested at all in the issue of rising obesity rates in children and adolscents, and the food industry's role in preventing the continuation of this trend, please see the FTC press release for more details...

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/05/childhoodobesity.htm