Michelle Obama’s new campaign against childhood obesity
First Lady Michelle Obama today unveiled a campaign called “Let’s Move!” to reduce the epidemic of childhood obesity.
The four pillars of the First Lady’s campaign are:
Helping parents make healthy family choices;
Serving healthier food in schools;
Making healthy, affordable food more accessible;
Increasing children’s physical activity.
Since the announcement today, I’ve received e-mails or read about resounding cheers in agreement from organizations that include the American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Medical Association and more.
“The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic and security of our nation is at stake,” Obama said, according to a news release from the USDA. “This isn’t the kind of problem that can be solved overnight, but with everyone working together, it can be solved.”
Recent studies put the health care costs of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion per year, the USDA information stated.
Weighing in from the the pediatrics academy, Judith S. Palfrey, president of the organization that represents 60,000 pediatrician, called rescuing children’s health “a medical and moral imperative” in a news release.
“Over the past twenty years, our nation has seen an alarming rise in the number of our children who are overweight and obese. It will take a concerted effort and thoughtful collaboration to help create healthier communities for children,” she said.
The pediatric academy is asking pediatricians to start calculating the body mass indexes, or BMI, for patients over 2, among other recommendations.
The Let’s Move! campaign is a collaborative and community-oriented effort. Joining Obama for the announcement included local students, members of the president’s Cabinet, Congress members, many of the nation’s mayors and leading representatives from the fields of media, medicine, sports, entertainment and business communities.
~ Lillie-Beth Brinkman (lbrinkman@opubco.com)
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Comments
I listened to the speech and agreed more needs to be done. However,my children refuse to eat school food. Declaring it doesn’t taste good and there is no seasoning. What these organizations don’t seem to remember, is the fact people are without jobs and are using food banks to help along. Some have even moved into shelters because they have lost there homes. If a parent has to choose, do they go for cheap filling food or a piece of fruit? Being out of work and unemployment has run out, I may have to make that choice myself in the future.
more people are becoming obese these days because of too much junk food and too much sugar in snacks and fast foods. -
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Obesity is really an epidemic these days. People have become very lazy and does not want to exercise anymore. I do a lot of jogging and brisk walking everyday just to be fit and healthy.