Professor Deborah Rhode weighs in on rising childhood obesity rates for Futurity.
If society is serious about curbing obesity, especially in children, then it must adopt policies that confront obesity rates, which are a growing public health concern, argues legal ethics scholar Deborah Rhode.

“Obesity has a dramatically adverse effect on a population’s health,” says Rhode, professor or law and director of the Center on the Legal Profession and director of the Program in Law and Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford University.

She notes that the United States has the world’s highest per capita obesity rate, and that over the last three decades the percentage of children who are obese has risen to 17 percent.

“A third of children are also overweight,” Rhode says. “The prevalence of obesity among adults has more than doubled; about a third of adults are obese and another third are overweight.”

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“In principle, the United States is deeply committed to finding solutions to the rise of obesity and its health consequences. In practice, however, public policy has fallen short,” Rhode says.

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“At the same time that obesity rates have been rising sharply, many jurisdictions have resisted, or rolled back, strategies such as soda taxes or regulation of advertising directed at children,” Rhode writes.

Rhode says that the financial and political costs of anti-obesity policies are critical to consider. For example, simply suing people for misleading marketing may not be a solution. “From this perspective, litigation is a dubious investment, given the high price of lawsuits, their evidentiary difficulties, and the likelihood of political backlash.”

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By contrast, Rhode argues, strategies such as public education, greater access to parks, and physical education programs are less controversial and likely more effective. Public awareness is paramount, she says. One way to spotlight the obesity issue is through high-profile awareness campaigns subsidized through additional taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages.

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These taxes, she says, can both raise revenue and deter the consumption of sugary products. Rhode says that polling data suggests these taxes are politically acceptable if citizens know that the funds raised are used for obesity prevention.

Another possibility is a creative use of zoning regulations, Rhode says. New zoning could restrict the location of fast-food restaurants near schools while encouraging the location of healthy food retailers in underserved neighborhoods.

 

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