Overview
It is clear that our eating habits play a significant role in determining our risk of obesity. What types of foods we eat, how much food we eat, when we eat, what our food does or does not contain, how our food is prepared—all of these factors contribute to the increasing rates of obesity and overweight.
Developing effective obesity interventions that address this broad range of factors associated with healthy eating is challenging. Fortunately, many healthy eating intervention strategies are multilevel in nature, that is they include multiple components targeting individual-level behavior change, as well as policy and environmental factors in support of healthy eating. In addition, there are strategies addressing each level of the socioecological model including:
- individual-level behavior change (e.g., personal counseling),
- interpersonal relationships (e.g., social support),
- organizational policies or practices (e.g., comprehensive nutrition programs),
- community environments (e.g., community-wide campaigns), and
- social norms (e.g., mass media).
There is a growing body of evidence as to the effectiveness of healthy eating intervention strategies. In some cases, there is clear evidence of the effectiveness of particular intervention strategies. In other cases, the evidence is limited due either to mixed results across evaluation studies or a lack of evaluation studies conducted. In determining what strategies are most appropriate, public health practitioners should take into account a range of factors—target population, relevant health outcomes, evidence of effectiveness, and available resources.