Obesity and public policies: the Brazilian government's definitions and strategies.

The study analyzes national strategies for dealing with obesity in Brazil in the framework of the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) and the Food and Nutritional Security System (SISAN). Based on the document analysis method, we examined government documents produced in the last 15 years in the following dimensions: definitions of obesity, proposed actions, and strategies for linkage between sectors. In the SUS, obesity is approached as both a risk factor and a disease, with individual and social/environmental approaches aimed at changing eating practices and physical activity. In the SISAN, obesity is also conceived as a social problem involving food insecurity, and new modes of producing, marketing, and consuming foods are proposed to change eating practices in an integrated way. Proposals in the SUS point to an integrated and intra-sector approach to obesity, while those in SISAN emphasize the problem's inter-sector nature from an expanded perspective that challenges the prevailing sector-based institutional structures.