Abstract
China has dedicated significant efforts to preventing obesity, but the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity remains a pressing public health issue. Therefore, unique solutions are required to address this challenge in China. As a research priority, the food environment plays a pivotal role in addressing overweight and obesity. However, research on this topic in China lags behind that in other developed countries, and the conflicting global evidence on the association between the food environment and obesity cannot be directly applied to policymaking and intervention in China. In addition, the rapid advancement of digital technology has introduced complexities and uncertainties in the food environment. To address these challenges, we propose an alternative research framework through (a) dissecting the challenges associated with defining and measuring the food environment, (b) reorganising the relationship chains between the food environment and human diet/health and (c) taking into consideration digital platforms as crucial monitoring tools for studying the food environment. Our framework aims to unlock the potential of food environment research in the digital age, ultimately striving to tackle the overweight and obesity issues in China.