Shared Concerns and Opportunity for Joint Action in Creating a Food Environment That Supports Health.

Kendrin R Sonneville, Rachel F Rodgers

Journal: Nutrients 2019;11(1):41

PMID: 30585215

Plain Language Summary

The food industry is a key player in the creation of a food environment, characterised by the over-abundance and aggressive marketing of engineered foods that may increase risk for eating disorders or negatively impact their remission. The aim of this study is to outline the rationale for leveraging food policy as an approach to eating disorders prevention. This study shows that a critical goal for universal prevention measures is to develop and implement effective policy approaches to limit the food industry’s capacity to continue shaping the food environment. However, discretion is important as an unintended consequence of this position may be the proliferation of food industry practices that might increase eating disorder risk. Authors note that eating disorders experts have a crucial part to play in informing policies targeting the food industry to ensure that such policies do no harm. Furthermore, policy efforts targeting the food industry should be considered as a means of improving universal prevention and decreasing an important environmental risk for eating disorders.

Abstract

The food industry is a for-profit industry with high relevance to universal eating disorders prevention. To date, policy which targets the food industry and food environment has been underutilized in efforts to decrease the incidence of eating disorders and associated risk factors. In contrast, food policy has been extensively leveraged with the aim of reducing the incidence of obesity. While philosophical misalignments with these later efforts may have constituted an obstacle to identifying the food environment as a key target for eating disorders prevention, food policy is an area where shared interests can be found. Specifically, a shared goal of obesity and eating disorders prevention efforts is creating a food environment that supports health, while minimizing the influence of the food industry that profits from the sale of highly palatable, processed foods and "diet" foods and from increasing portions of foods served and eaten.

Address: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. [email protected].; Department of Applied Psychology, Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. [email protected].

DOI: 10.3390/nu11010041