Details of First Lady’s Campaign to Combat Obesity

Here are the major elements of Michelle Obama’s campaign to combat obesity as reported in the news media:

She proposed that the Food and Drug Administration work with food manufacturers and retailers to make food labels more “customer-friendly.” The non-alcoholic beverage industry has said it will start putting caloric information on the front of its products.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging doctors to monitor children’s body-mass index, which is a calculation of height and weight used to measure body fat. The AAP president stated the obesity problem needs a national solution.

Serve more healthy foods in schools. Congress is due to rewrite the Child Nutrition Act this year, and the Obama Administration is asking lawmakers to spend $10 billion over the next decade to give schools more money to make needed changes. More than 31 million children get meals through the Federal School Lunch Program, and many youngsters consume up to half their daily calorie total at school.

The First Lady’s program advocated offering $400 million in tax breaks to encourage grocery stores to establish outlets in “food desert areas” where there are limited supplies of nutritious food or a lack of Farmers’ Markets – a step that would require Congressional action.

Set up a Web site – www.letsmove.gov - with shopping tips, a recipe finder and other resources.

Finally, something that we have long been promoting: Encourage children to exercise at least one hour a day.

~Wid

“Let’s Move . . .”

The campaign to combat obesity – particularly among children – gained a prominent advocate when First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled her “Let’s Move” campaign that she hopes will sound the alarm of what has become an epidemic among the nation’s populace and will address what needs to be done about it, a theme we have been promoting in our blogs over the past year.

Drawing on her own experiences as a working mom with two young daughters, she spoke in a recent interview about struggling to juggle office hours, school pickups and extracurricular activities and often being too tired to make dinner at the end of the day. She acknowledged she did what was easy: ordering takeout or going to the drive-through.

She thought her girls were eating reasonably well until her pediatrician in Chicago told her he didn’t like the weight fluctuations he was seeing. “I was shocked because my kids looked perfectly fine to me. It was a wake-up call, but like many parents, I didn’t know what to do. I realized I had to become more aware of the importance of healthful food choices and exercise.”

The stated goal of the campaign is to eliminate childhood obesity in a generation. She admits it is an ambitious goal, “but we don’t have time to wait. We’ve got to stop citing statistics and wringing our hands and feeling guilty. We’ve got to get going on this issue.”

I couldn’t agree more. So “Let’s Move!” I’ll be discussing more details of the First Lady’s campaign in subsequent blogs.

~Wid

"Anything is possible."

Paola Boivin,Republic columnist writes,"Thanks to Apolo Anton Ohno and a controversial finish, Saturday nights 1500-meter final didn't disappoint. The future of the Winter Olympics is better for it."
"This goes to show you," Ohno said." Anything is possible."
How true this is in life as well!

Wid

"Onside Kick!"

You gotta be kiddin' me! The Colts had the ball for 6 plays in the third quarter. Then there was the longest halftime in history (at least 45 minutes), to compound this time span the Saints made one of the b___iest calls in Super Bowl history opening the 2nd half with an" onside kick" which they recovered and converted into points! By the time Peyton and his teammates finally saw the ball again a lifetime had past! The biggest comeback in Super Bowl history was in motion.
To top things off the most viewed TV event in history was finished off with a Saints interception and a 72yd runback for a TD! Turn out the lights,the party was over .
Great game! You couldn't help but feel good for the city of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina,and the 6ft cast off QB who won the games MVP! "WHO DAT."

Wid