Three Highlights of Tuesday at Obesity Week 2013
Tuesday at Obesity Week 2013 brought a sharp discussion of employer wellness programs, an examination how food technology might help with obesity, and new obesity treatment guidelines with thanks and recognition for Donna Ryan, who helped lead the process.
- Advocacy Forum: Employer Wellness Programs. A crowd of policy advocates and Obesity Week attendees engaged in a lively examination of employer wellness programs with a focus on obesity. Distinct academic, research, and patient advocate perspectives came together with sharp discussion of how to boil the content down to sound bites for sound policy.
- Food Technology Forum. The Obesity Society’s Food Industry Task Force brought food scientists from Nestle and Pepsico to discuss the science that goes into developing food that meet consumer needs and how it affects energy balance. The forum provided an unusual opportunity to set aside some of the heated rhetoric of food policy and consider some of the science the industry uses.
- Obesity Treatment Guidelines. Donna Ryan, co-chair with Michael Jensen, endured a lengthy process with NIH (which ultimately walked away from issuing guidelines) to bring this guidelines into final form. For these and a lifetime of contributions to obesity, Ryan received the George Bray Founders Award from the Obesity Society.
Click here to read more about the advocacy forum, here for more about the food technology forum, and here and here to read more about the new obesity treatment guidelines.
Atlanta and Southeastern U.S. at Night, photograph © NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center / flickr
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