Obesity continues to be one of the United States’ most troublesome health concerns.  Obesity affects 73 million adults and 12 million children, and the trend appears to continue to rise.  While the basic cause is the same, more calorie intake than output, there are a number of factors that contribute to people eating more and being less active. Stopping the increasing rate of obesity in the United States will require quick action from society at large, including government, health professionals and the food industry, according to a report released last week by a committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The report is extensive, making five broad recommendations and identifying 20 strategies to meet those recommendations.  These recommendations include nutrition standards for foods in schools, infrastructure investments to encourage additional physical activity and changes to agricultural policy to encourage increased production of fruits, vegetables and dairy products. While the report recommends eating patterns that align with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which do encourage more low-fat and fat-free dairy, many of the report’s recommendations could have mixed results for dairy products.  I’ve summarized some of these recommendations below: Marketing to Children:  Food manufacturers and marketers should voluntarily adopt consistent and transparent standards for marketing foods and beverages to children, according to the IOM committee.  If the majority of the industry has not adopted marketing standards within two years, the report urges governmental bodies to set mandatory standards. Food in Schools:  The report recommends nutrition standards for both school meals and competitive foods, which are both in various stages of development and implementation.  For competitive foods and beverages, the report urged adoption of the strictest recommendations from the 2007 IOM report on competitive foods.  The standards set by the earlier report would severely limit competitive beverages in schools, which can help increase milk consumption, but they would also set limits that would exclude virtually all cheese and ice cream from competitive sales in schools. Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: Sugar-sweetened beverages are criticized repeatedly in the report, with recommendations to prohibit access to these beverages in child-centered locations, such as schools, and to make them unattractive options to all people, using taxes, for example, to discourage purchases.  The definition of sugar-sweetened beverages used in the report isn't clear enough to know whether flavored milk or sweetened yogurt drinks would be included.  While not ruling dairy products out of the category, most of the initiatives in the report focused on soft drinks, fruit drinks and other similar products. Front-of-Pack Labeling: While the report did indicate that recent action from the industry, specifically the Facts Up Front initiative, was promising, the report still recommends that  the federal government set a single system for front-of-pack labeling, similar to the recommendations of last year’s IOM report. The report seems to conclude that voluntary changes from food industry won’t be enough to control the rising obesity rate.  It refers to “public health experts [who] continue to conclude that statutory regulation will be needed to address the problem.” The report was sponsored by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, an independent foundation with interest in public health issues.  As with all IOM reports, the recommendations of the committee are not binding, but could prove influential to regulators or legislators as they attempt to slow the growth of obesity. What changes can dairy make to address some of the recommendations made by the report?  What will be the most challenging or most beneficial changes to make?