A Half-Century of Progress in Health — The National Academy of Medicine at 50: Solving Population-wide Obesity

This article offers a retrospective and forward-looking analysis of efforts to combat the global obesity epidemic, marking five decades of activity by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). It charts historical milestones from the shift in U.S. nutrition policy focus from hunger to obesity in the 1970s, through landmark reports, legislation, and campaigns like "Let's Move!" that shaped public health responses to rising BMI trends. Despite legislative successes (e.g., Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act), disparities persist and are worsening among racial, ethnic, and low-income groups. The authors argue that current strategies insufficiently address structural forces like globalization, urbanization, and corporate influence. Global efforts (e.g., INFORMAS, the Lancet Commission’s syndemic framing) are cited to stress the interconnectedness of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. The article concludes that population-wide obesity demands bold, systems-level transformation beyond conventional public health tools including a reimagining of the environments that perpetuate excess consumption, sedentariness, and inequity.

This article offers a retrospective and forward-looking analysis of efforts to combat the global obesity epidemic, marking five decades of activity by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). It charts historical milestones from the shift in U.S. nutrition policy focus from hunger to obesity in the 1970s, through landmark reports, legislation, and campaigns like "Let's Move!" that shaped public health responses to rising BMI trends. Despite legislative successes (e.g., Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act), disparities persist and are worsening among racial, ethnic, and low-income groups. The authors argue that current strategies insufficiently address structural forces like globalization, urbanization, and corporate influence. Global efforts (e.g., INFORMAS, the Lancet Commission’s syndemic framing) are cited to stress the interconnectedness of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. The article concludes that population-wide obesity demands bold, systems-level transformation beyond conventional public health tools including a reimagining of the environments that perpetuate excess consumption, sedentariness, and inequity.