*Article by the American Planning Association.
By Marya Morris, FAICP
“Energy balance” is a phrase that doctors and nutritionists often use to advise patients on maintaining a healthful diet and getting regular physical activity. It is an equation of sorts that measures the number of calories, or energy, a person consumes relative to how much energy the person burns.
Increasingly, health care professionals aren’t the only ones with skin in this particular game. In neighborhoods and towns everywhere, planners and public health officials are tackling energy balance at the neighborhood, community, and regional scales through targeted efforts to increase access to healthy foods and opportunities for regular physical activity.
In 2014, with funding from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, APA teamed up with the American Public Health Association to establish Plan4Health (plan4health.us), a program that has delivered grants totaling $4.5 million to 35 U.S. communities. The funds support creative partnerships and build sustainable cross-sector coalitions that are committed to increasing health equity. APA members and their public health colleagues are key program leaders. (Read about Plan4Health’s efforts in rural communities in The Commissioner‘s Planning Tools story.)
