First Lady Michelle Obama introduces her healthy kids initiative today. Her campaign to fight childhood obesity, if successful, could drive down health-care costs in this country by billions of dollars a year.
Nearly one third of children in America are overweight or obese. In the Latino and African American communities this number jumps to almost half. As these children grow up, they stand an increased chance of developing diabetes, heart disease, and joint problems, plus increasing their risks of several cancers. The costs to our health-care system and to quality of life are devastating.
Ms. Obama’s initiative focuses on healthy school lunches, promoting physical activity, and accessing affordable healthy foods. It may sound easy, but as anyone who’s tried to lose a few pounds knows, it’s not. It will take a combination of government action, parental fortitude, and a pop culture shift to turn around America’s “fat” problem.
Government could start by directing farm subsidies away from corn (think high fructose corn syrup) and toward healthy foods grown locally that could be used for school lunches. Sugar-laden soft drinks could be taxed (see the October 20, 2009 Qmuse titled “Health-Care Part 2). I like the idea of the tax revenue going directly to health-care subsidies. Soft drink companies could make-up for lost revenues from sodas by selling more bottled waters–if it’s possible to add vitamin D to water this would be a good start.
In a conversation I had with Michael Pollan, author of “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”, he suggested that one of the most important things parents could do for their children’s nutrition is cook. I was a little stunned until I remembered a conversation that I had with one of my son’s elementary school teachers: When I picked my son up from school, this teacher always asked me what I was making for dinner. One day he explained that I was one of the few mothers that actually “cooked” dinner. When I queried Mr. Pollan on “what” I should cook, he said that almost anything “home cooked” was better than what people were “picking up” to feed their kids. As parents our mantra should be: cook for them, read to them, take them for a walk–we would all benefit.
The First Lady is making every attempt to shift pop culture: She has been seen extolling the benefits of healthy eating on “The Food Network”, “The Iron Chef” and “Sesame Street”. She has planted a vegetable garden at the White House and has hula-hooped for the cameras. If she is successful with her healthy kids initiative, she will have done what her husband and congress have failed to do–improve health-care. Go Michelle!
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I am glad that someone in an influential position is finally talking about food in this country. Anyone who has traveled out of the country is very aware of how processed our food is in comparison to other countries. As an example, in France they have a whole aisle of yougurt v. here where we have a whole aisle of sugary breakfast cereals. Your suggestion about the corn subsidy is spot on – let's instead support healthy, locally grown food. Let's have school gardens and community gardens so that children are exposed to foods that are actually grown rather than out of a box or a fast-food wrapper. And, while I am on a rant – we need to change the factory farms that are raising most of the beef, chicken and pork in our country. I only want to eat grass-fed beef and free-range chickens that are actually allowed to move around. Anyway, thanks Michelle – you go girl!!