Addressing Latino food environments, addressing Latino children's health: Local policy options that tackle health disparities, obesity, and the fast food industry

Amidst the diet-related disease epidemic, a growing body of research suggests that curbing food promotions to children could have positive implications for children's health. Each year, the fast food industry spends $4.2 billion on marketing. Among this expenditure, the fast food industry spends a disproportionate amount of money targeting the Latino community; in 2010 alone, McDonald's directed 25% of its measured network TV spending at Spanish-speakers. This presentation will discuss McDonald's targeted marketing to Latinos in the U.S. and the implications for Latino health.

Additionally, this presentation will analyze a report by Corporate Accountability International and Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg from CUNY School of Public Health, providing recommendations for policymakers seeking innovative, environment-based strategies to prevent obesity and diet-related disease. From addressing school-based zoning to in-restaurant marketing, the report examines opportunities to transform food environments for Latino children, seeking to address the health disparities associated with fast food's targeted marketing.

Using this report and recent case studies, this presentation investigates a range of effective tools for addressing the food environments of Latino children, and the ways that health professionals and policymakers can advance public health at the local level. By analyzing fast food policy options and the means for achieving these policies, the presentation will expand health professionals' understanding of not only policy options available for addressing health disparities, but the process of adopting policies that will most effectively shape our food system, address the communities most-targeted by fast food's marketing and restaurant siting, and reverse this epidemic among children.