Obesity beyond individual choice: food environments, geolocation technologies, and public policies for obesity prevention
Keywords:
Food environment, Geolocation technologies, Geographic Information Systems, Obesity, Public policy, Territorial inequalitiesAbstract
Obesity is a major public-health challenge shaped not only by individual behavior but also by the environments in which people obtain, purchase, prepare, and consume food. Latin America and the Caribbean face a particularly severe burden, marked by high obesity prevalence, food insecurity, and limited affordability of healthy diets. This narrative review examines how food environments, geolocation technologies, territorial inequalities, and public policies influence obesity prevention, weight management, and health promotion in adults. The reviewed evidence indicates that food choices and weight-related outcomes are influenced by the availability, affordability, and type of foods offered within home, retail, institutional, workplace, and mobility-related environments. Geolocation technologies expand this assessment by identifying exposure around residences, workplaces, and commuting routes and by revealing food deserts, food swamps, and territorial inequalities that residential measures alone may overlook. Geographic Information Systems can also support public-health planning, service allocation, and the identification of vulnerable populations, although individual GPS tracking is not a standard WHO method for obesity surveillance. Brazil has a strong normative framework for food and nutrition policy, but implementation varies across institutions and regions. Other Latin American countries have advanced through coordinated regulatory and fiscal measures, while the WHO European Region has placed greater emphasis on regional surveillance, physical-activity policy, product reformulation, and integration with health services. Effective obesity prevention requires coordinated action across food systems, health systems, social policy, and urban planning. Priority actions include improving access to nutritious foods, strengthening healthier community and institutional food environments, protecting children, expanding equitable obesity care, and using geospatial surveillance to identify populations and territories facing the greatest barriers. These findings reinforce that obesity cannot be attributed solely to individual choice and requires structural, territorially informed, and context-specific responses.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Camila Fernanda Cunha Brandão, Lígia Moriguchi Watanabe, Luísa Maria Diani, Marcela Augusta de Souza Pinhel, Ana Vitória Leca, José de Jesús Martínez González, Débora de Oliveira Emos, Arthur de Andrade Borges, Carla Barbosa Nonino, Natália Yumi Noronha (Author)
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