First Lady Calls For United Effort To Fight Childhood Obesity
Michelle Obama is telling America that it's time to get moving.
In a news conference at noon Tuesday at the White House, the First Lady introduced a national effort to combat childhood obesity.
"We're determined to take on one of the most serious threats -- and that's the epidemic of childhood obesity today," she said.
Called The Let's Move campaign, the program focuses on what families, communities and the public and private sectors can do to help fight childhood obesity, which she and health experts have termed an epidemic in the United States. The campaign aims to take steps to reduce childhood obesity within a generation.
Mayors, doctors, members of the Cabinet, and leaders in sports, entertainment and business joined the First Lady.
Former NFL player Tiki Barber introduced several speakers including a pediatrician, an urban farmer, and mayors from Mississippi and Massachusetts.
President Obama signed a memorandum earlier Tuesday morning establishing a federal task force to tackle childhood obesity, calling it "one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country."
"We think that this has enormous promise in improving the health of our children, in giving support to parents to make the kinds of healthy choices that oftentimes are very difficult."
The task force, according to the memorandum, will have 90 days to craft a plan encouraging "optimal coordination" between the federal government and both the private and nonprofit sectors. Several Cabinet members, including the secretaries of Interior, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, will serve on the task force to complement Obama's public awareness effort.
In the weeks leading up to the announcement, the first lady urged America's parents to turn off the television, drink more water and serve smaller portions to curb the growing public health problem.
Obama was to comment on how many parents understand the impact of unhealthy food choices and the lack of exercise on their children's health, yet don't know how to make the simple changes to help their kids.
The administration, in partnership with public health professionals and private companies will address these issues in several ways:
First, according to Obama, package labels should be easier to read.
By the end of the year, the Food and Drug Administration will begin working with retailers and manufacturers to adopt new nutritionally sound and consumer friendly front-of-package labeling to provide 65 million parents in America and other caregivers with easy access to the information they need to make healthy choices for their children.
The first lady is also expected to emphasize the need to cut calories.
The average soda contains 110 calories, yet many kids drink one or more a day. In an effort to make kids and parents more aware of these calories, the American Beverage Association has voluntarily committed to put calorie labels on all of front of its cans, bottles, vending and fountain machines within two years. The label will reflect total calories per container, up to 20 ounces and 12-ounce serving size in multiserve containers.
And school lunches also play a big role.
According to the White House, on school days, many American children consume more than half their daily calories at school, and more than 30 million of these kids participate in the National School Lunch Program.
With this program, students will have access to healthier food in schools through several initiatives:
The Obama administration is requesting an investment of an additional $10 billion over 10 years, starting in 2011, to improve the quality of the school lunch and breakfast programs, increase the number of kids participating and ensure that schools have the resources they need to make program changes.
With the money, more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products will be served in school cafeterias.
Major school food suppliers are to decrease the sugar, fat and salt in school meals over 10 years, and also increase whole grains and produce served within 10 years.
The first lady encouraged doctors and parents to work together to help kids stay healthy.
In this initiative, the American Academy of Pediatrics will educate their members about obesity to make sure pediatricians measure a child's body mass index on a regular basis and identify a weight problem early. If a child is getting heavy, the physician can write an official prescription for healthy, active living.
Body mass index is a number -- calculated from height, weight, age and gender -- that measures body fat.
On Tuesday, Dr. Judith Palfrey, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said there are ways to encourage activity -- like making charts recording children's TV time and having children set jump-roping, running and fitness goals.
"This is a long-term commitment to our children's health," she said. "It will take a concerted effort among all of us -- the whole nation to create healthier communities for our children. We must take on this challenge."
During a speech last month at a Virginia YMCA, the first lady spoke about health issues caused by childhood obesity.
"We've seen the surge in obesity in this country is nothing short of a public health crisis, and it's threatening our children, it's threatening our families, and more importantly it's threatening the future of this nation," she said. "Higher rates of obesity are directly linked, as you've heard, to higher rates of chronic illnesses like heart disease and cancer and diabetes."
The number of overweight children ages 6 to 19 has tripled since 1970, a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine study found.
During her speech at the YMCA, Michelle Obama shared strategies she has used with her own children.
She helped her daughters stay active by limiting television watching, she said. The first lady also cut back on meal sizes and sugary drinks, and added more fruits, vegetables and water to their diet.
"It was really very minor stuff. But these small changes resulted in some really significant improvements," Obama said.
Sources: CNN
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