OBJECTIVE: To analyze the Brazilian nutrition public policies on the control of childhood obesity. DATA SOURCES: Articles, essays, reviews and laws in SciELO, Lilacs, PubMed, Virtual Health Library, System Health Legislation and Sanitary Surveillance Legislation between 1990 and 2010, about Brazilian nutrition public policies for control of childhood obesity were searched. The keywords "obesity", "overweight", "child", "schoolchildren", "public policy", "health policy", "nutrition policy", "school canteen", "food school", "food advertising", "food labels", in Portuguese and English. DATA SYNTHESIS: The Brazilian government was active in designing health promotion programs aimed at combating childhood obesity in the recent years, such as the School Health Program, the National School Feeding Program, the Food Regulatory Marketed in School, the Healthy School Project, Promoting Healthy Eating in Schools, Ten Steps for Promoting Healthy Eating in Schools, and the Regulation of Advertising and Advertising of Foods. There is a need for implementation and enforcement of these laws and regulations for the control of childhood obesity in Brazil in order to promote healthy feeding habits. CONCLUSIONS: The design, planning, implementation and management of these policies should aim the transformation of the social problem of obesity.
obesity; public policies; child; health policy; nutrition policy