"It's done, honey." The words President Barack Obama spoke after signing an executive order to fight childhood obesity kicked off first lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative. Members of the White House's new task force say one-third of American children are overweight or obese and 1 out of 10 kids between the ages of 2 and 5 are already obese.
Michelle Obama Wants to End Childhood Obesity
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I sat in on a White House conference call shortly after President Obama signed the executive order today. Members of the task force discussed some alarming statistics our children are facing and what we can do to fix the problems.
"Researchers have warned us if we don't solve this public health crisis, it could be the first generation of American children to have a shorter life span than their parents," said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
She also said parents have to be role models, citing research that shows children with one obese parent have a 40% chance of being obese too. If both parents are obese, there's an 80% risk.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted schools must also make changes to combat childhood obesity.
"We need to have healthier meals in schools," he said. "We have 31 million students eating school lunches every single day -- 31 million times 180 school days. That's a tremendous number of meals that our students are eating every day -- 7.6 billions lunches a year."
On the LetsMove.org website, Mrs. Obama shares her personal story of life before the White House, juggling a house with two working parents and sacrificing nutritious home-cooked meals because of a lack of time.
This is something stay-at-home moms face too. We're out running errands, going to playgroups, picking up our children from school and before you know it, you have whining kids in the backseat begging for a burger. The easy choice is to hit a fast food chain, but Mrs. Obama cautions this convenience turned into a wake-up call when her family's pediatrician warned her about her daughters' body mass indices.
"I started to see the effects on my family, particularly my kids," Mrs. Obama says in the video. "It got to the point where our pediatrician basically said, 'You may want to make some changes.' We started making those changes, short, easy changes, but they led to some really good results."
This isn't the first step Mrs. Obama has taken to put healthier eating habits on Americans' plates. She planted her first garden last summer on the South Lawn of the White House, which helps feed her own family fresh vegetables. She also visited Sesame Street to talk with Elmo about healthy eating habits.
Let's Move has partnered with the NFL, FDA, CDC and other organizations to encourage exercise, create easier to read food labels and support community programs. The American Academy of Pediatrics will also reach out to its 60,000 members to educate them on measuring every child's body mass index regularly while providing parents with resources to help their kids eat better and exercise daily. The campaign's ultimate goal is to knock out childhood obesity within one generation.
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