Diet includes many risk factors for the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs), but diets consumed in Europe and in other parts of the developed world are not being modified sufficiently to take account of health priorities concerning, in particular, the prevention of NCDs, while much excess mortality and morbidity could be prevented by government actions to regulate appropriately both th...

INTRODUCTION We assessed the effect on the food environments of public high schools of Maine's statewide nutrition policy (Chapter 51), which banned "foods of minimal nutritional value" (FMNV) in public high schools that participated in federally funded meal programs. We documented allowable exceptions to the policy and describe the school food environments. METHODS We mailed surveys to 89 hi...

In the 1930s the new science of nutrition was disseminated in Brazil, which also introduced the conviction that cow's milk was the most important of staple foods. Despite the campaign promoted by the Ministério de Educação e Saúde Pública (Ministry of Education and Public Health) in the mid-1930s, the consumption of milk in Rio de Janeiro remained far short of the recommendations of experts due...

Food in its many manifestations allows us to explore the global control of health and to examine the ways in which food choice is moulded by many interests. The global food market is controlled by a small number of companies who operate a system that delivers 'cheap' food to the countries of the developed world. This 'cheap' food comes at a price, which externalises costs to the nation state in...

This paper evaluates how gasoline prices influences the average fuel economy of the existing automobile fleet. Higher fuel price affects fleet composition in two ways: immediate purchase decisions of new, more fuel efficient, vehicles and scrappage of old fuel inefficient gas-guzzlers. Gasoline costs account for 65% of the total operating costs of driving an automobile. Rational forward-looking...

States and school districts around the country are developing policies that set nutrition standards for competitive foods and beverages sold outside of the US Department of Agriculture's reimbursable school lunch program. However, few tools exist for monitoring the implementation of these new policies. The objective of this research was to develop a computerized assessment tool, the Food and Be...

BACKGROUND Policies to create healthy food environments are recognized as critical components of efforts to prevent obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases. There has not been a systematic review of existing methods and tools used to assess the implementation of these government policies. The purpose of this study was to review methods and tools used for assessing the implementation ...