The New York State Department of Health is pleased to present the first-ever New York State Strategic Plan for Overweight and Obesity Prevention. The Plan is the product of a broad collaborative effort to identify strategies to promote and increase opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating to prevent and to reduce overweight and obesity across the age span.

The plan is the result of work and an extensive process involving comments and input from hundreds of stakeholders and interested residents across the State. Their insights provided substance and shape to this Plan, and a consensus that we know what needs to be done and, importantly, that the community has the will to make change.

Overweight and obesity in New York State affects all people regardless of gender, age, race or ethnicity. It is a preventable condition that affects quality and length of life. Overweight and obesity are contributors to many preventable chronic health conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers, arthritis, asthma and disability.

This Plan will serve as a new beginning for all New Yorkers. The goals and objectives address how we recognize and react to changes in our weight status; the strategies suggest and encourage ways for us as individuals, as families, as a community, to respond to how and what we eat and ways in which we can be more physically active throughout life. It will shape our thinking and our response not only as individuals and families, but also for settings we find ourselves in, such as our communities, workplaces, schools and health care environment, so that all can work together to achieve healthy weights through healthy daily living.

Strategic Plan for Overweight and Obesity Prevention
health.state.ny.us