Obesity and Public Policy Ashley N. Gearhardt, 1 Marie A. Bragg, 1 Rebecca L. Pearl, 1 Natasha A. Schvey, 1 Christina A. Roberto, 1, 2 and Kelly D. Brownell 1, 2 1 Department of Psychology, 2 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; email: ashley.gearhardt@yale.edu, marie.bragg@yale.edu, rebecca.pearl@yale.edu, natasha.schvey@yale.edu, christina.roberto@yale.edu, kelly.brownell@yale.edu Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2012. 8:405–30 First published online as a Review in Advance on January 3, 2012 The Annual Review of Clinical Psychology is online at clinpsy.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143129 Copyright c  2012 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved 1548-5943/12/0427-0405$20.00 Keywords obesity prevention, weight bias, school health, food marketing, food labeling, food addiction Abstract There is a pressing need to reduce both the prevalence and impact of obesity. This review begins with a discussion of the roles of treatment and prevention. Two overriding issues, weight bias and the addictive nature of food, are covered because of their importance not only to the individuals affected but also to public policy. We then cover promising policy areas in which changes can be implemented to support healthy behaviors: school policy, food marketing, food labeling and packaging, and taxes on unhealthy foods. The roles of the food industry and federal, state, and local governments are also discussed. 405 Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2012.8:405-430. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Yale University - SOCIAL SCIENCE LIBRARY on 09/10/12. For personal use only.