Obama on Obesity

Last week Advertising Age suggested that Presidential Candidate Barack Obama might be taking a softer approach on childhood obesity because his senior director of domestic policy, Melody Barnes, said the campaign did not discuss restrictions on marketing and advertsing of “junk food” or upping the ante on federal advertising to promote healthy behaviors as tactics for addressing obesity.

For the life of me, I don’t understand why Advertising Age would perceive Obama’s strategy as a softer approach. The strategy is anything BUT soft. Here’s an excerpt on the plan:

Melody Barnes instead suggested that an Obama administration would take a holistic approach toward childhood obesity that includes the possibility of greater federal funding for physical education, new programs to encourage health insurance companies to pay for preventative health care, more education about food choices and better school menus.

Why would Obama make advertising regulation an integral part of the plan when it is well-known that it is behavior that matters more? How far would regulation “move the needle” on obesity compared to these other tactics? The industry is already down a path of self-regulation, with the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. So, until the research evidence demontrates that self-regulation doesn’t work, what would more federal regulation do?  Certainly the idea of increasing federal regulation is nothing new, which  contradicts Obama’s “Change” campaign anyway.

But I’ll tell you what IS new… increasing federal funding for physical education at a time when budget constraints result in schools cutting phys ed. Programs for insurance to cover preventative health care is also a new approach, considering that today registered dietitians cannot get reimbursed for counseling an overweight person to help them prevent obesity unless they already have diabetes or kidney disease — and the number of visits allowed is miniscule at 2 per year.

Through all the twists and turns of legislative advocacy that champion MNT benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, the way it stands today is that Medicare Part B covers MNT when it is ordered by a physician for people with kidney disease (who aren’t on dialysis), have a kidney transplant, or have diabetes. These services can be provided by an RD or Medicare-approved nutrition professional and may include nutritional assessment and counseling. Medicare recognizes a nutrition professional as a qualified dietitian, licensed RD, licensed nutritionist that meets the RD requirement, or grandfathered nutritionist who was licensed as of December 12, 2000.

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If we are going to provide nutrition care to people with insurance who may not be able to afford 100% percent of the costs for RD visits out-of-pocket then we need to reimburse the dietitians for their health care services. They are the nutrition experts and nutrition is key to preventing obesity and maintaining a healthy weight.

More education about food choices is also a smart strategy. Yes, yes, yes… consumers know that fast food and most processed food is not health food. But the recent laws on menu labeling in NYC have shown that even health-conscious people are shocked to find out the actual fat and calories in bakery muffins and restaurant salads. From my own experiences working with people of various ages, races, and income levels knowledge of basic nutrition, like calorie needs and balancing healthy meals, was lacking across the board.

Who could argue against the notion that school lunches can be improved? Competition from other foods of little nutrition value and unappetizing options in general means we are setting our kids up for a lifetime of poor food preferences.

No, I don’t think these changes reflect a soft approach to tackling obesity in America. Rather, it appears that finally some strategies we can hold on to are in the works. Regulation of tv commercial may have its place in the obesity landscape. But I’d rather bet on active kids making healthy food choices due to better education and access to weight-related health care as ideal catalysts for behavior change.