Adherence
Regulation of meals in schools and workplaces, including bans on vending machines and provision of healthy options, shows positive short-term effects on consumption but fails to account for compensating behavior outside the intervention setting.
School and workplace healthy food programs can help, but they are not a silver bullet. If people compensate by eating less healthy food elsewhere, the net benefit is lost. These programs work best when combined with broader environmental changes that make healthy choices easy everywhere, not just at school or work.
Most of these actions show a positive effect on behavior, at least in the short term... However, most of the evaluations are extremely partial in nature, recording only changes in behavior at the place of intervention... hence, they fail to take into consideration any compensating behavior outside the school.
Why this rating
The paper notes positive short-term effects but highlights methodological flaws in evaluations (lack of control for compensating behavior).
Source
Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe: a structured review of policies and their effectiveness
Sara Capacci et al. · Nutrition Reviews · 2012
DOI 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2011.00442.x
More from this paper
- Fiscal measures such as taxes on unhealthy foods (e.g., fat/sugar taxes) and subsidies for healthy foods show potential to improve dietary intake in simulations, but real-world implementation is limited and often ineffective due to low tax rates and inelastic demand.Good
- Public information campaigns and nutrition education policies in Europe primarily increase knowledge and awareness but fail to produce significant, sustained changes in actual dietary intake or health outcomes.Moderate
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