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Washigton: In addition to mortgage rescues, banking bailouts and healthcare reform, some people would like to know what President-elect Barack Obama intends to do about the nation's growing girth.
Not to worry.
A think-tank called the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), housed at Northeastern University's School of Law, sent a list of nearly 50 obesity-related legal and policy recommendations to Obama's Health and Human Services transition team this week.
"Public health, unlike some other national assets, cannot be 'rescued' or 'bailed out'," PHAI President Richard Daynard wrote in a cover letter attached to the document. "An aggressive federal approach to obesity is desperately needed."
The recommendations include:
- Issue an executive order demanding that all executive-branch agencies consider the effect of major federal legislation on the obesity epidemic, similar to the Environmental Justice Executive Order of 1994.
- Impose federal taxes, both sales and excise, on purchases of unhealthy foods and beverages and earmark the revenue for obesity programmes.
- Ban commercial promotion of food in schools and educational settings receiving federal funds.
- Provide funding through the 2009 reauthorisation of the federal Child Nutrition Bill to establish a garden at every school.
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