A new, extensive study from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health claims that it was not the Great Recession or any economic downturn that created a leveling of U.S. obesity rates, as other scholars have suggested. Rather, the leveling and decline started well before that – in good economic times – and has continued. The reason likely is not economics as much as the result of more information and efforts aimed at producing healthier food choices and eating habits. The study, “Turning point for US diets? Recessionary effects or behavioral shifts in foods purchased and consumed”, was posted online in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.