Promoting healthier diets and active lifestyles: Policies and best practices

Overweight is a serious public health problem requiring a co-ordinated, multi-sectoral response. This chapter provides a broad overview of existing policy approaches, both national and international, aimed at improving diet and encouraging physical activity in OECD, EU28 and Group of 20 (G20) countries. Particular attention is paid to policies that are either innovative, or have a solid evidence base for their effectiveness, including policies that aim to influence lifestyle choices through information and education; policies that expand healthy choice options; policies designed to modify the costs of health-related choices, and policies aimed at regulating or restricting unhealthy options. Both the opportunities presented by the introduction of the selected policies, as well as the challenges associated with their implementation, are discussed.