Preventing Overweight and Obesity - Using The Media To Communicate The Prevention Message

The Surgeon General's Call to Action underscored the pivotal role of the media in prevention efforts. The media can communicate and educate the public about healthy behaviors and health risks associated with overweight and obesity. They can introduce and reinforce prevention messages from health-care professionals and can assist to alter attitudes and perceptions by celebrating healthy eating and physical activity.

Since 1995 the International Food Information Council has tracked media coverage of diet, nutrition, and food safety. In the first such report, Food for Thought (1995), the Council reported that the leading nutrition and food issues receiving newspaper, television, and other media coverage during the previous twelve months were: reducing fat intake, the impact of diet on disease risks, discussions of food-borne illnesses, vitamin and mineral intake, disease causation, caloric intake, antioxidants, cholesterol intake, sugar intake, and fiber intake. As obesity became a more prominent issue in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Council reported that the number of stories about obesity skyrocketed from just 395 for the twelve-month period ending September 30, 2000, to 4,767 for the twelve months ending September 30, 2003. This increase reflected both an increasing volume of coverage as well as an increase in the number of media outlets reporting about diet, overweight, and obesity. In Food for Thought VI (2005), the Council reported that obesity was the leading topic in food and nutrition media stories during the previous year, followed by disease prevention, physical activity, weight management, disease causation, vitamin and mineral intake, fat intake, functional foods, mad cow disease, calorie intake, and biotechnology (http://ific.org/research/upload/FullReportFFTVI.pdf).

The World Health Organization cautioned about judicious use of the media to combat the obesity epidemic. In a June 26, 2003, press release, "WHO Encourages Media to Put Obesity in Perspective," Dr. Derek Yach, the WHO executive director for non-communicable diseases and mental health, asserted that the media's fixation on obesity threatens to overshadow efforts to improve global health. Yach said "Of course obesity is important but it isn't the only issue, and we wouldn't want that to be seen as the only issue." He also said he believed the WHO would oppose measures such as "fat taxes" intended to discourage consumption of high-fat foods. Yach offered that food manufacturers have expressed to the WHO their willingness to produce more healthful products, and he explained that based on recommendations from the World Bank, the WHO does not feel that manipulating taxes to modify consumption is advisable and that it could have undesirable effects.