Alarmed by a tripling of obesity rates among U.S. children over the past 30 years, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council issued a report recommending policy initiatives to trim the fat from America’s youth.
Saying the child obesity problem cannot be solved at the federal level, the two groups counsel state and local officials to impose their own soft drink taxes, tax “junk food,” limit access to television and video games in after-school programs, replace public school vending machines with water fountains, open school playgrounds to the general public, build more sidewalks and bicycle paths, and require restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus.
