The new healthy: lawmakers are cooking up ways to encourage better eating and cultivate local economies.

• Author: Winterfeld, Amy
• Position: NUTRITION

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As Americans leap into the New Year, many will resolve to eat healthier to make up for holiday indulgences. New guidelines for what eating healthy means, released last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, include a new "MyPlate" icon: a dinner plate that divides fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy into appropriate portions on a colorful place setting. With more than 33 percent of American adults overweight or obese--resulting in medical costs of about $147 billion a year, according to 2009 study in Health Affairs--and 17 percent of children and adolescents also above a healthy weight, eating more nutritiously is paramount.

"We need to make sure we have the most nutritious food that we can," says Texas Representative Carol Alvarado. "A child who receives a healthy meal will be a better student, a healthier adult and less likely to have heart disease and diabetes."

Healthy eating is an issue many lawmakers have already tackled. Some support comes from those who want to encourage healthy choices by bringing more fruit and vegetables to their communities. Others see a silver lining in the salad plate: a lift to local economies by promoting state agriculture products.

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Fill Half Your Plate With Produce

The new dietary guidelines recommend a plate half full of fruits and vegetables. Yet 32 states scored at or below the national average, in a 2011 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report looked at the availability of supermarkets, produce stands and farmers' markets that typically sell healthy foods such as fresh produce, whole grains and low-fat dairy products.

"My district is underserved by grocery stores and has more convenience stores that don't provide fruits and vegetables," says Alvarado. "I support community gardens--it teaches children about where food comes from and how it grows and also teaches them to take pride in their community."

State legislatures in Illinois, Louisiana, New York and Pennsylvania have supported public-private partnerships to bring healthy food sellers into urban, suburban and rural communities currently starved of produce. Not only can this help local diets, it also may give a boost to local economies. Grants, loans and tax credits are offered to grocery operators to build new full-service stores or improve existing facilities by adding refrigerated storage for fresh produce, for example. In Pennsylvania, over a five-year span, 5,000 jobs were...