Improve Nutrition in Kid's Restaurant Meals

ACS CAN will work to ensure that restaurant meals marketed to Vermont kids meet minimum nutrition standards including the ensuring that a healthy beverage (water, 100% juice or milk) is the default beverage offered as part of kid’s meals and kid’s menus.

Make the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network supports policy efforts to make the healthy choice the easy choice for Vermonters

• Up to one-third of cancer cases and cancer deaths in the United States are due to poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, overweight and obesity.
• Obesity is also a major contributor to the state’s burgeoning health care system, with obesity-related health care costs among Vermont adults estimated at $291 million per year. This amount likely underestimates the total health care costs of obesity because it does not include obesity-related health care costs in youth.
• Childhood obesity increases the risk for adult obesity and chronic diseases, including cancer, in addition to independently increasing the risk for a number of major health problems.
• Many cancers can be prevented with lifestyle changes.
• According to the Vermont Department of Health, 3 behaviors contribute to 4 diseases that result in 50 percent of deaths in Vermont. The lack of physical activity, poor diet and tobacco use results in cancer, heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes and lung disease; which kills 50 percent of Vermonters.