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Food Labels and Restrictions Can Lower Childhood Obesity Rates, Study Finds
- June 12, 2026
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Aggressive national food policies can reduce the number of kids with excess weight, a new study says.
A Food Labelling and Advertising Law (FLAL) adopted by Chile reduced risk of overweight and obesity among that country’s children, researchers reported June 11 in The Lancet.
The law required warning labels and restricted sales and marketing for foods and drinks high in sugars, saturated fats, salt or calories, researchers said.
“Although individual national measures like sugar taxes on soft drinks have been associated with improved health outcomes, this is the first study to plausibly demonstrate that a package of policies can reduce early childhood overweight/obesity risk at the national level,” researcher Guillermo Paraje, a professor of economics at the Adolfo Ibáñez University Business School in Chile, said in a news release.
“These results offer strong evidence for policymakers around the world,” Paraje said. “They support mandatory front-of-pack nutrition warning labels, restrictions on unhealthy food in schools and marketing bans as effective, practical ways to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic.”
Chile passed its FLAL in 2016. Along with warning labels, the law restricted sales of unhealthy food in schools and banned marketing directed at children.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data on more than 300,000 schoolkids ages 4 to 6 in Chile, comparing their weight before and after the introduction of the FLAL.
Results showed that girls had a 2.9% lower risk of overweight or obesity and boys a 2.4% lower risk within 18 months of the introduction of the first phase of the FLAL.
Researchers expect an even greater response from phases 2 and 3 of the FLAL, which were implemented in 2018 and 2019. These set even stricter limits on sugars, saturated fats, salt or calories, but were not considered in this study.
“Although the reduction in obesity and overweight risk among young school children may seem modest, it is likely that the further tightening of the law in later years will have increased the impact, especially given evidence that there was a greater drop in sales of labeled food products during phase 2 of the FLAL compared to phase 1,” said researcher Maria Nieves Valdes, an associate professor of economics at the Adolfo Ibáñez University Business School.
“Additionally, even a small weight reduction for children who have overweight or obesity is likely to bring meaningful long-term health benefits, given the strong links between childhood obesity and later risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, as well as evidence that early prevention can substantially lower these risks,” Valdes added in a news release.
In an accompanying editorial, researchers from The George Institute for Global Health in Australia said the study shows that a concerted national effort can overcome food industry opposition to policies that promote good health.
“The research results strengthen the case for governments to move beyond incremental, single-policy approaches and to instead implement comprehensive, integrated strategies to improve food environments,” wrote Simone Pettigrew and Daisy Coyle, food researchers with The George Institute.
"In particular, the results highlight the potential for policy suites including mandatory warning labels and marketing restrictions on unhealthy foods and school food minimum standards to produce meaningful outcomes,” they added.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on childhood obesity.
SOURCE: The Lancet, news release, June 11, 2026
