For the first time in our history, the United States is raising a
generation of children who may live sicker, shorter lives than their
parents. Why? Childhood obesity threatens the health and future of our
children. It's time to get moving to fight this epidemic!
Literally.
Oh, and our partner in this is First Lady, Michelle Obama. Pretty cool,
huh? Yeah, I've been a bit giddy since I first heard of this initiative
last week and previewed it here.
From the Let's Move site:
Let's Move! has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Let’s Move will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.
Specifically, with Let's Move she wants to improve nutrition and physical education in schools;
promote activity such as walking and biking in community planning; make
healthy food more available, particularly in poor areas; and make
nutrition information on food packages clearer.
There have been previous efforts (by many) at chipping away at the problems:
- some food manufacturers have curbed marketing to children, decreased the salt and sugar content in some foods, and sought to remove trans fats from their products
- select cities and states have required restaurants to post the calorie and fat content of their offerings
- many parent and health organizations have tried to remove sugary drinks and salty snacks in school vending machines
- a group of food manufacturers attempted to advise consumers on
"Smart Choices" in the aisles before the FDA claimed their labels were
misleading
- fast food chains like McDonald's and Jack in the Box have added produce options for their kids meals
But childhood obesity hasn't gone away. Our kids still face life-long disease and health challenges. These are big problems, needing collaboration, ideas and a lot of hard work from everyone involved with children, food and health.
Stay tuned. I'm sure there's more to come very soon. Until then...get your kids, grandkids or friends moving.
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