Policy interventions to promote healthy eating: a review of what works, what does not, and what is promising.

Unhealthy diets can lead to various diseases, which in turn can translate into a bigger burden for the state in the form of health services and lost production. Obesity alone has enormous costs and claims thousands of lives every year. Although diet quality in the European Union has improved across countries, it still falls well short of conformity with the World Health Organization dietary guidelines.

Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe: a structured review of policies and their effectiveness.

This review provides a classification of public policies to promote healthier eating as well as a structured mapping of existing measures in Europe. Complete coverage of alternative policy types was ensured by complementing the review with a selection of major interventions from outside Europe. Under the auspices of the Seventh Framework Programme's Eatwell Project, funded by the European Commission, researchers from five countries reviewed a representative selection of policy actions based on scientific papers, policy documents, grey literature, government websites, other policy reviews, and interviews with policy-makers.

An evaluation of the UK Food Standards Agency's salt campaign.

Excessive salt intake is linked to cardiovascular disease and several other health problems around the world. The UK Food Standards Agency initiated a campaign at the end of 2004 to reduce salt intake in the population. There is disagreement over whether the campaign was effective in curbing salt intake or not.

Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project.

Objective: To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit.

Design: Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available.

Setting: European Member States.