Policy strategies for improving the nutritional profile of fast food purchases

My presentation will focus on policy strategies for increasing healthy restaurant meal purchases and decreasing exposure to unhealthy fast food marketing. I will begin with a brief a discussion of why the First Amendment limits the ability of government to restrict advertising and will proceed to describe a range of policy options available to government that are unlikely to trigger First Amendment problems. I will highlight zoning, taxation, pricing, portion-size, and other non-speech related business regulations. I will also touch on government vending contracts, government counter-advertising, and content-neutral advertising regulations. I will close by mentioning important questions regarding local authority and preemption.