LETTER TO THE EDITOR

We thank Segal and Dalziel for their interest in our work. They are correct in their assessment that the ACE approach to priority setting endeavours to utilise the ‘best available evidence ’ and to inform policy development in public health. We are pleased to share our reasoning for our optimistic assumption about the maintenance of benefit through time, which includes both policy and technical elements. At the policy level, our rationale has been to provide the best possible estimates for the potential contribution of the selected interventions to controlling the obesity epidemic. Yet, even with the most optimistic assumption about maintenance of effect through time, the conclusion is that these interventions alone are unlikely to be sufficient to control, let alone reverse, the obesity epidemic. We hav