Advocacy/Organizing Resources

Research on What Works!

"The Food Environment and Obesity," a 40-minute presentation by Simone French, Professor in the Division of Epidemilogy and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. This presentation was given at the First International Keys Symposium on Nutrition and Health. Dr. French reports on two major studies and focuses on four factors that impact food choice and so provide opportunities for making change: availability, price, promotion, and peer support. Dr. French offers suggestions for how to create effective interventions.

The study of Nutritional Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota has several faculty working on research related to effective school interventions to improve healthy eating. The Division's Center for Youth Health Promotion contains several links to resources on Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs. Unfortunately, information about publications is not entirely up to date. The following are two important articles. While they are not available online, their results are summarized in "The Food Environment and Obesity" presentation described above.

Simone French, et. al., "An Environmental Intervention to Promote Lower-Fat Food Choices in Secondary Schools: Outcomes of the TACOS Study," American Journal of Public Health 94 (September 2004): 1507-1512.

Simone French, "Public Health Strategies for Dietary Change: Schools and Workplaces," Journal of Nutrition 135 (March 2005): 910-912.

"Behavior Change Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity," a 40 minute presentation by Thomas N. Robinson from the Division of General Pediatrics and the Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University. This presentation was given at the First International Keys Symposium on Nutrition and Health. Dr. Robinson argues that successful interventions need to movitate behavior change and that information is not enough.