Government¹

Aim

Use legislation, pricing, and other policies at all levels of government to promote healthy patterns of diet and physical activity

Recommendations

• Examine, audit, and revise legislation and regulations so that they protect public health and prevent disease, including cancer²
• Ensure that built and external environments are designed and maintained in ways that facilitate physical activity and other healthy behaviour²
• Encourage safe, nutrient-dense, and relatively unprocessed foods and drinks and discourage sugary and alcoholic drinks, 'fast food', and other processed foods^2,3
• Require schools to provide meals to high nutritional standards and facilities for recreation and sport, and to include nutrition and physical activity in core curricula²
• Require all government and publicly funded facilities that provide catering to ensure that their meals, foods, and drinks are of high nutritional quality²
• Require widespread dedicated walking and cycling facilities throughout built and external environments
• Restrict advertising and marketing of 'fast food' and other processed foods³ and sugary drinks to children, on television, in other media, and in supermarkets²
• Incorporate UN recommendations on breastfeeding into law or appropriate public health and consumer protection rules.² Give greater priority to research on, and programmes to improve, public health including the prevention of cancer and other diseases²
• Establish and maintain publicly funded information and education on, and surveillance of, food, nutrition, and physical activity status
• Ensure that international food trade and aid sustains future health as well as providing immediate relief for populations in recipient countries

1 Policy-makers and decision-takers in national and also sub-national (state, provincial, municipal, local) government and its agencies. Relevant government departments include:

• office of the head of state or prime minister
• finance
• trade
• employment
• social security
• justice
• home affairs
• foreign affairs
• food, agriculture, and health
• Also includes publicly funded agencies and institutions whose work affects public health. National government international trade and aid agencies are also included here (Also see Media, Schools, Workplaces and institutions)

2 By means of legislation, pricing, or other regulation unless there is good independent evidence that existing voluntary codes have been proved to be effective

3 'Processed foods' here means those relatively high in sugars, refined starches, fat, or salt

For more details see Chapter 8 of the Policy Report, which can be found in our resource downloads section.