Improving Coordination of Legal-Based Efforts across Jurisdictions and Sectors for Obesity Prevention and Control

See Kroplin v. Truax, 119 Ohio 610, 621 (1929); Patrick v. Riley, 209 Cal. 350, 354 (1930). State and local governments have used their police power authority to develop and enact measures to counter obesity, including the following: requiring disclosure of the nutritional content of food served in restaurants; imposing restrictions on the advertising of junk food to children; mandating school nutrition and physical education programs; calling on schools to measure students' “body mass index”; regulating the sale and marketing of junk food in schools; and enforcing mixed-use zoning rules to encourage the dispersal of supermarkets and prevent the aggregation of quick-service outlets improving opportunities and incentives for non-motorized transportation, including “safe routes to school.” See Boehmer , “Patterns of Childhood Obesity Prevention Legislation in the United States,” CDC's Preventing Chronic Disease 4, no. 3 (July 2007): At 2 and Table 1, available at http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2007/jul/06_0082.htm (last visited March 5, 2009).

Id., Wisconsin's 1999 Smart Growth Law allocates more than $3 million each year to local governments to do comprehensive planning.

Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824).

Mello M. M. Rosenthal M. B. , “Wellness Programs and ‘Lifestyle Discrimination’ – The Legal Limits,” New England Journal of Medicine, 359 no. 2 (2008): 192–199.

See The Food Trust Web site, available at http://www.the-foodtrust.org (last visited March 5, 2009)http://www.the-foodtrust.org

See Mello Rosenthal , supra note 4; Healthy Workforce Act, July 25, 2008, available at http://www.healthpromotionadvocates.org/Fact%20Sheet%20Healthy%20Workforce%20Act.pdf (last visited March 5, 2009).

Stoltzfus E. , “Emerging Benefits: Access to Health Promotion Benefits in the United States, Private Industry, 1999 and 2005,” July 26, 2006, available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20060724ch01.htm (last visited March 5, 2009).

1994 ESEA, Reauthorization, the Improving America's Schools Act, Public Law 103–382.

Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, Public Law 108–265, 118 Stat 729, June 30, 2004, available at http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/Legislation/Historical/PL_108-265.pdf (last visited March 5, 2009).

Rudalevige A. , “The Politics of No Child Left Behind,” Education Next, 3 no. 4 (2003), available at http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3346601.html (last visited March 5, 2009).

Weber J. A. , “Measuring Progress on School Wellness Policies: Are Nutrition Standards Making the Grade,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 107 no. 8 (2007): 1293–1295.

Mercer S. L. Green L. W. Rosenthal A. C. Husten C. G. Khan L. K. , and Dietz W. H. , “Possible Lessons from the Tobacco Experience for Obesity Control,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 77, Supplement (2003): 1073S-1082S.