Table 1 .

Examples of programmatic approaches to address overweight and obesity in low- and middle-income countries in the context of existing nutrition programmes largely focused on undernutrition

	Food systems	Education systems	Health systems
Existing nutrition programmes	∙Restrict marketing of breast-milk substitutes ∙Invest in food distribution infrastructure ∙Increased access to legumes/pulses and grains high in protein and micronutrients ∙Public procurement and distribution of fruits and vegetables	∙Schools should develop dietary guidelines that promote and provide healthy foods and, where feasible, provide healthy breakfast and/or lunch to students	∙Counselling by community health workers on appropriate dietary intake during pregnancy ∙Breast-feeding promotion ∙Appropriate complementary feeding that emphasizes quantity, quality and diversity of foods according to age, and ensures intra-household allocation of foods to infants and young children
Integration of overweight and obesity	∙Restrict marketing of unhealthy foods to children ∙Food-based dietary guidelines ∙Nutrition label standards	∙School curricula should include what constitutes a ‘healthy diet’, the health consequences of overweight/obesity and the importance of physical activity ∙Adolescent girls are an important target population ∙Schools should reduce access to sugary, high-fat snacks and beverages ∙The importance of a healthy weight should also be discussed in preparation for pregnancy, with non-pregnant women and adolescents, through community channels or schools	∙Develop overweight and obesity polices and guidelines and provide budgetary allocations for implementation at district and health facility levels ∙Integrate overweight into pre-service and in-service training curricula of health providers ∙Incorporate promotion of ‘healthy diets’ in nutrition behaviour change activities ∙Heath-care providers should provide counselling on maternal diet and appropriate gestational weight gain during antenatal care ∙Counselling should be based on an understanding of cultural beliefs and food choice related to high-energy foods (i.e. sugary foods and fried foods) and nutritious foods (i.e. fruits and vegetables) ∙Counsel mothers, caregivers, family members and influential community members to feed children appropriately and to not consume junk foods ∙Avoid providing sugar-sweetened beverages during community/mothers’ support group sessions and postnatal care visits ∙Develop monitoring and evaluation indicators and targets for national, district/health facility and community levels ∙Include overweight indicators in national development plans