Policy Options for Reducing Energy Consumption Through Environmental Change

Introduction: The combination of environmental forces that encourage energy consumption and neuropsychological mechanisms that support mindless eating has led to an epidemic of obesity. Policies to respond to the epidemic must take these factors into account.

Methods: This paper will review the types of policies and environmental changes that could reduce population-level energy consumption by changing the quantity, frequency or energy density of foods eaten. Reports of current efforts as well as potential new approaches will be discussed.

Results: Many current approaches to promoting healthy eating, such as increasing availability of fruits and vegetables, while probably beneficial to population health, are not likely to have much impact on energy consumption. Other interventions to change eating patterns such as calorie labeling in fast-food restaurants, mass media campaigns, “traffic light” labeling in food stores, and taxing energy-dense foods have not been fully evaluated but have a potential for some impact. A list of more aggressive policy options, from regulating portion sizes to limiting where food can be sold will be presented. For each policy, the potential impact on energy imbalance will be discussed. In addition, the political barriers to implementing these policies and ways of addressing those barriers will be reviewed.

Discussion: An effective response to the obesity epidemic requires more careful consideration of the environmental influences that promote energy consumption, the policies that can alter those influences, and the politics of implementing those policies.