IOM Report Identifies Key Obesity-Prevention Strategies to Scale Back 'Weight of the Nation'

Solving this complex, stubborn problem requires a comprehensive set of solutions that work together to spur across-the-board societal change, said the committee that wrote the report. It identifies strategies with the greatest potential to accelerate success by making healthy foods and beverages and opportunities for physical activity easy, routine, and appealing aspects of daily life.

9 May 2012 — America's progress in arresting its obesity epidemic has been too slow, and the condition continues to erode productivity and cause millions to suffer from potentially debilitating and deadly chronic illnesses, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

Solving this complex, stubborn problem requires a comprehensive set of solutions that work together to spur across-the-board societal change, said the committee that wrote the report. It identifies strategies with the greatest potential to accelerate success by making healthy foods and beverages and opportunities for physical activity easy, routine, and appealing aspects of daily life.

The report, which was released today at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Weight of the Nation" conference, focuses on five critical goals for preventing obesity: integrating physical activity into people's daily lives, making healthy food and beverage options available everywhere, transforming marketing and messages about nutrition and activity, making schools a gateway to healthy weights, and galvanizing employers and health care professionals to support healthy lifestyles.

The committee assessed more than 800 obesity prevention recommendations to identify those that could work together most effectively, reinforce one another's impact, and accelerate obesity prevention.

Specific strategies that the committee noted include requiring at least 60 minutes per day of physical education and activity in schools, industry-wide guidelines on which foods and beverages can be marketed to children and how, expansion of workplace wellness programs, taking full advantage of physicians' roles to advocate for obesity prevention with patients and in the community, and increasing the availability of lower-calorie, healthier children's meals in restaurants.

"The IOM report provides an excellent blueprint for solving America’s costly obesity problem. But policy makers will have to invest both money and political capital to convert the advice into reality," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Congress should fund a multi-billion-dollar, multi-year anti-obesity program that includes national and local community and social-marketing campaigns. That program could be funded with a significant tax on sugary beverages. The SNAP (food stamp) program should be improved by testing the effectiveness of excluding purchases of sugary beverages and providing a bonus for fruits and vegetables."

"This country has shown that it can solve almost any problem when we come together and make it a priority—as we have to cut smoking rates in half," said CSPI nutrition policy director Margo Wootan. "With two-thirds of Americans affected by pre-obesity and obesity, this is clearly a societal problem that requires action by individuals, families, schools, health officials and professionals, governments, and industry."

Source: Institute of Medicine