All communities need access to healthy foods and safe places to play and be active—but not all communities enjoy equal access to these vital means of health. We take a systems approach to improving access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity—working across a spectrum of issues, from agriculture, education, land use and transportation, to economic development, industry regulation, and safety. We believe health equity should be the core goal in our national efforts to reduce diet- and activity-related chronic disease, and our work strives to understand how communities experiencing inequities can be best supported in the creation of neighborhoods, cities, and regions that foster health. Through a focus on federal policy, along with state and local research, consultation, and capacity building, we promote cross-sector, equity-focused solutions to promote healthy food and activity environments.
Published in the Californian Journal of Health Promotion, this article sheds light on the five unintended consequences of "obesity," and provides strategies to remove us from a focus on the "O" word and from blaming the individual for their condition.
This document serves as a companion piece for Where's the Fruit?, highlighting concrete actions the food, beverage and restaurant industries should take to ensure a healthier future for our neighbors and children - including nutrition labeling and healthy marketing to children.
A policy paper discussing the connection between the obesity epidemic and the role of community.
This paper identifies key investigations of the neighborhood food environment, examines current efforts to bring about improvements, and discusses new research and policy priorities.
Offers a framework for creating food and activity environments in neighborhoods and institutions that will motivate and support families to adopt healthy behaviors.
This publication summarizes the efforts of 11 organizations advocating for improvements in food and activity environments within predominantly low-income neighborhoods and with African American and Latino residents.
Though this brief primarily views the built environment through a public health lens, it also describes built environment issues from the perspective of environmental justice, sustainable food systems, economic development, equity, and climate change.
This brief from the Convergence Partnership delineates crosscutting strategies that have the potential to engage diverse constituencies and address a diversity of issues that impact healthy eating and active living.
The stage is set for health and nutrition professionals to ally with other groups advocating for healthful and sustainable food in calling for government and industry policies that reshape our food system into one that supplies us with healthful food. Please join us in supporting this vision.
This 2007 study, released in conjunction with Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, examines how the food and beverage industry continues to produce and market unhealthy products aimed at children via aggressive and misleading advertising campaigns. In a key finding, Prevention Institute found that over half of the most aggressively marketed children's foods advertising fruit on the packaging actually contained no fruit ingredients. Where's the Fruit offers a collection of recommendations for the food and beverage industry to support healthy eating. For the one year
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