Household-level financial uncertainty could be the primary driver of the global obesity epidemic.

Evidence has accumulated in support of the notion that changes in household-level financial uncertainty (or "economic insecurity") may be an important fundamental cause of the global obesity epidemic. The timing and spatial/demographic incidence of the obesity epidemic suggest that economic policies aimed at expanding economic freedom may have inadvertently shifted risk to households, thereby generating a costly public health problem.

Smart food policies for obesity prevention.

Prevention of obesity requires policies that work. In this Series paper, we propose a new way to understand how food policies could be made to work more effectively for obesity prevention. Our approach draws on evidence from a range of disciplines (psychology, economics, and public health nutrition) to develop a theory of change to understand how food policies work.

Effects of household composition and income security on body weight in working-age men.

Objective: Many recent studies have provided evidence suggesting that increases in body weight may spread via social networks. The mechanism(s) by which this might occur have become the subject of much speculation, but to date little direct evidence has been available. Building on evidence from economics, anthropology, and behavioral biology, within-household peers might influence body weight via implicit provision of income security was hypothesized.