This news story covers the preliminary, encouraging results of a new scheme by the USDA to make healthy foods more affordable for Americans, with the aim of cutting obesity. It also reviews recent evidence for other policies that appear to have benefits in the US and elsewhere, including schemes that reward healthy lifestyles and taxes on sugary or fat-laden foods and drinks. There is a sidebar on using psychological approaches to alter consumer habits. The significant findings include the first, albeit preliminary, hints that the USDA’s Healthy Incentives Pilot scheme appears to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed by participants, that schemes run by insurance companies that reward healthy behaviors can have significant impacts on weight loss, and that, while fat taxes don’t go down well with consumers, a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages – which could soon pass in California – could considerably reduce events like heart attack and stroke, as well as medical costs.
