Academics in the Aisles Establishing a university-supermarket

partnership The prevalence of overweight and obesity in the US is a serious public health problem. Nearly 70 per cent of US adults are overweight (body mass index (BMI) 25–29.9 kg/m2) or obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) combined; and 34 per cent are obese (Flegal et al. 2012). Seventeen per cent of US children and adolescents are obese (BMI ≥95th percentile using the BMI-for-age growth charts), a proportion that is higher than that of children and adolescents in other countries (Ogden et al. 2012). Having an unhealthy body weight increases the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain cancers. While diet and exercise are key determinants of body weight, environmental factors, such as poor access to fresh foods and lack of safety and infrastructure for physical activity, prevent the adoption of optimal health behaviours (Hill & Peters 1998; Sallis & Glanz 2006, 2009). Supermarkets in the US are responding to the obesity epidemic by providing the unique asset of food, pharmacy and registered dietitians in one location to help grocery shoppers successfully manage diseases, improve nutrition and lower stress (Food Marketing Institute 2012). Children in healthy weight households report being more involved in food purchasing decisions and therefore many supermarkets give hands-on store tours during school field trips (Blischok 2010). Clearly, the supermarket plays an important role in dietary intake and health; it is the largest source of food in the American diet and the average shopper makes one to two trips to the supermarket per week (Blac