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L. M. CRAWFORD, Office of the Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Ln., Rm. 14-71, Rockville, MD 20857-0001 Obesity may or may not be regarded as a disease, but it is without question one of most serious public health issues involving food, and as such a major concern of the Food and Drug Administration. In recent years, the FDA, in cooperation with other federal, state and local agencies, has been successful in reducing the incidence of foodborne illness caused by the most common food bacteria; it has been able to protect the United States against the health hazards caused by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy; and it has a vigorous, broadly-based program designed to protect the U.S. food supply against an attack by terrorists. But FDA's past attempts to encourage the choice of a healthy diet by authorizing certain health claims and requiring caloric and nutritional information on the food label have failed to reverse the growing rate of overweight and obesity. The FDA therefore in August 2003 established a special Obesity Working Group to explore various avenues the agency could pursue within its means and mandates in order to bring this epidemic under control. The Working Group studied such possibilities as organizing a nationwide education campaign about obesity and its prevention; enhancement of the food label and of the information about food served in restaurants; facilitating the development of new weight-control drugs; and identifying the necessary applied and basic research relative to obesity. The Group's report, issued in February, 2004, identified several approaches that -- implemented in cooperation with other public and private bodies -- offer a realistic chance of helping reduce the body mass and obesity-associated diseases of millions of Americans.
Session 9, Politics of obesity: Revisited
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