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Looks at the evidence from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK that marketing of junk foods is responsible for child obesity, and surveys the FSA website. Queries the soundness of the FSA’s claims to be authoritative in matters of food and healthy diet, focusing on the “comprehensive review of research“ which the FSA commissioned from the Centre for Social Marketing (CSM). Criticises the approach and methodology of the CSM report as being biased against advertising: for example, it ignores research which shows that advertising of alcohol has negligible effect on overall alcohol consumption, it uses loaded language, circularity of argument, unclear criteria for assessing the “relevance“ of the literature selected, and fails to explain why obesity is increasing when advertising on food brands is falling. Concludes that the taxpayer’s money is being wasted on such uninformative research.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that nutritious food intake is a somewhat overlooked yet essential aspect of corporate wellness that has the potential to help provide organizations with a sustainable competitive advantage.

The paper first discusses the resource‐based view, identifying ways in which nutritious food intake across an organization may serve to create rare and inimitable organizational resources leading to a competitive advantage. It then presents a basic overview of the fundamentals of nutritious food intake. It proceeds to review the transtheoretical stages of change model in the context of tailored nutrition interventions in organizations, providing a detailed overview of key individual behavior focused and environmental focused change strategies along with a discussion of types of technical delivery systems.

The paper suggests that an organization may be able to use a tailored stage‐based nutrition intervention as part of a comprehensive wellness program in order to help create a sustainable competitive advantage based on the nutritious food intake of its members.

Future researchers should continue to examine the effectiveness of stage‐based computer tailored nutrition interventions and their delivery systems, particularly in the context of comprehensive corporate wellness plans and the extent to which this serves to create a competitive advantage through lower direct healthcare costs and higher worker productivity.

Organizational leaders should carefully consider the strategies and methodologies presented in this paper when designing and implementing nutrition interventions as part of a broad corporate wellness program.

This paper makes a valuable contribution to the organizational literature by recognizing the potential for the application of the transtheoretical stages of change model from the field of nutrition education within the context of the resource‐based view of organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to define the potential to promote healthy nutrition in workplaces in the Baltic States and to provide the strategic structure for health promotion at national level.

A survey, using the telephone questionnaire method, was conducted among the adult population in the three Baltic countries in 2007, to compare the general eating habits of the residents in those states. The sample for the survey was random, with 500 (or slightly more) consumers between the ages of 15 and 74 in all three countries surveyed.

The survey showed that eating habits in Estonia differ from other Baltic countries. Estonians are the most urban consumers, who eat their lunch outside of the home; they use a broader selection of ready‐to‐eat meals than Latvians and Lithuanians. The lunch choice made by Estonians is therefore more influenced by what is offered in their workplaces. Estonian National Strategy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Estonian health are the main national public health policy documents. The development of the Network for Workplace Health Promotion is one of the actions carried out within above‐mentioned strategies, as are county‐based health councils, responsible for management and coordination of implementation of the strategies at local level, including cooperation with local workplaces.

The paper presents useful, practical examples of where changes in the composition of food in catering have improved not only workers' eating habits, but also their satisfaction and commitment to work. There have been positive changes in CVD mortality in Estonia. Still, the mortality rate in Baltic countries is considerably higher compared to the other EU countries and this calls for the direction of the health promotion activities in workplaces in other Baltic States also.

In recent years, several studies have focused on city clusters like megacities and mega urban areas, as they concentrate a significant part of the world's human population and critical economic assets in potentially hazardous locations (Yusuf, 2007; WWF, 2009; Kraas, 2007; Jones, 2009). Metro Manila is one of such megacities, where even “regular” disasters affect a large number of people. The rapid pace of urbanization, coupled with an ever-increasing population burden, has significantly increased the overall vulnerability of urban agglomerations to natural disasters. By 2050, world population is expected to reach 9 billion people. Large numbers of people will be concentrated in megacities and on fragile lands, making the reduction of vulnerability to disasters in metropolitan areas a critical challenge facing development. Unmanaged rapid urban growth strains the capacity of national and local governments to provide even the most basic of services such as health, food, shelter, employment, and education. The challenge then is for the national government and most especially the local governments to develop effective policies, programs, and strategies that will help them manage urbanization to ensure development.

So far only minimal efforts have been made to directly integrate health concerns with priorities of the processes of global economic development. Nonetheless, there is search for new models to provide sufficient medical care and to encumber global threats, soaring medical costs, technological costs, poverty, and disease. Using example of health conditions and health policies implemented in countries of Southeast Asia in comparison to Eastern Europe, the chapter emphasizes success achieved and in the process of achievement in provision of health care to societies in these countries.