Laws and policies relating to promoting healthy eating and access to healthy food can often spark controversy. These kinds of policies may draw charges of government overreach into personal liberties and rights. Having research or evidence to support the need for a proposed policy change can help counteract these concerns.

Many healthy eating laws and policies are novel and innovative, so the scientific evidence supporting this area is in early stages. For some types of policies (such as school food related policies, or policies in child care centers), more research has been done; for others, the scientific evidence basis is emerging. Thus, in addition to scientific evidence, advocates, community members, and policymakers can also build their own evidence through the use of surveys, interviews, and lived experience.

The Healthy Food Policy Project has begun to identify and organize publicly available sources that collect or provide reviews of scientific research on laws and policies (including policy ideas) to promote healthy eating and/or access to healthy food. The sources provided here do not focus on specific articles or reports; rather, they are online, publicly accessible databases, listings, and compilations of research, and primarily of systematically reviewed research, related to healthy eating policy and nutrition. A systematic review is a methodological search of scientific studies and reports that collects and analyzes relevant research to create a summary of the available evidence.

We understand that this list is not comprehensive, and of course, it does not include other important forms of evidence such as community members’ lived experiences and practice-based evidence. But we hope it provides a good starting point for those interested in learning more about the scientific evidence for healthy food policy. We plan to continue to grow this resource, so if you know of an online source not listed here that you believe might be helpful, please let us know.