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Approximately 32% of US children are overweight or obese. Restaurant and fast food meals contribute 18% of daily calories for children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years. Changing children’s menus may improve their diets. This case study describes Best Food for Families, Infants, and Toddlers (Best Food FITS), a community-based intervention designed to address childhood obesity. The objective of this study was to improve San Marcos children’s access to healthy diets through partnerships with local restaurants, removing sugar-sweetened beverages, decreasing the number of energy-dense entrées, and increasing fruit and vegetable offerings on restaurant menus.

Restaurant foods can be a substantial source of sodium in the American diet. According to the Institute of Medicine, the significant contribution made by restaurants and food service menu items to Americans’ sodium intake warrants targeted attention. Public health practitioners are uniquely poised to support sodium-reduction efforts in restaurants and help drive demand for lower-sodium products through communication and collaboration with restaurant and food service professionals and through incentives for restaurants. This article discusses the role of the public health practitioner in restaurant sodium reduction and highlights select strategies that have been taken by state and local jurisdictions to support this effort.

Half of All States Have Smoke-Free Worksites, Restaurants and Bars

Philadelphia enacted its Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA) nearly 2 years before the statewide CIAA. In this study, we assessed the economic impact of CIAAs on 4 types of food services and drinking places and addressed the predominant limitation of previous pre–post ban studies, namely the lack of control for confounders and changes in secular trends over time.