Childhood obesity report released today
Talk to food and nutrition experts, and most will rave about First Lady Michelle Obama. Between her high-profile White House garden and now higher-profile campaign to end childhood obesity, Michelle Obama has changed the game in where food and nutrition fit into national priorities. She’s partnered a lot with celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, and his Food Revolution.
Today, Obama and her Childhood Obesity Task Force release their report and strategy for defeating the epidemic in one generation. You can watch the press conference live here.
Traditionally, First Lady initiatives have been kept carefully buffered from poilitics, and therefore, real change. When they do have teeth…well…just look at what happened to Hillary Clinton’s health care initiative when she was First Lady.
As we pointed out yesterday, it’s impossible to address obesity and nutrition in America without addressing subsidies. So I’ll be looking for signs that this childhood obesity strategy is looking ahead to the next Farm Bill to make some real changes.
UPDATE: Forgot to add that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is getting in on the fight childhood obesity action with her own celebrity chef. Today she’s in DC with Rachel Ray to push for improvements to the Childhood Nutrition Bill. From the press advisory:
Television personality, author, founder of the Yumo-! organization and leading child nutrition advocate Rachael Ray will team up with fellow New Yorker Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to lobby federal lawmakers for billions more in child nutrition funding to combat childhood obesity. First, Ray and Gillibrand will visit third graders at a local D.C. elementary school near Capitol Hill to promote healthy eating before Ray heads to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers.
While I applaud the efforts to improve the health of children, I just do not understand why we can’t be FOR children’s health instead of AGAINST childhood obesity. Shouldn’t health be for all children?
I’m already hearing from kids are are getting ridiculed by ADULTS in their schools, forced to weigh-in in front of their classmates, and singled out for the BMI’s. As if obese kids didn’t have enough problems in our culture.
You can’t shame people into taking care of their bodies, and adding the stress of publicly being shamed about their weight just doesn’t logically lead to kids who are mentally healthy enough with high enough self-esteem to make good choices in any area of their lives, least of all their health.
Making kids hate their bodies will not support them in taking care of those bodies. Do you take care of things you hate? Neither do kids. It’s not “for their own good” . Their own good is to be raised to believe that they are incredible beings who deserve to be respected and treated well by themselves and others, and taught true, correct information about health. A child who is in a good mental, physical and intellectual state to make healthy choices is much more likely to do so than I child who has been beaten down by the “war on obesity” club.
I agree.
We don’t need another “program” against obesity. I totally agree we should be for health and fitness and not all worried about bmi’s and so forth for little kids.
We need to invest in community assets that encourage active play and activity for children. Why have these big programs against obesity in schools while at the same time we are cutting out recess? In my school recess ends in 4th grade, why?
Ragen, extremely well said. In this day of shallow minded people the “chubbies” and “fat kids” are just cannon fodder.
I agree with Roger. Communication is so unusual with schools now, with security trumping everything, that I cherish any note from the school. My daughter, 12, who throws bales all winter to the cows, sheep, etc.- makes hay all summer- totes nieces and nephews, is a smidgen overweight- I have no doubt than in a year she will have slimmed down. I got a letter from the school saying she needed to be seen by a physician because her BMI was elevated. I ignored the letter- I don’t wish to medicalize or stigmatize her- I will make sure she’s active, make sure she’s not eating junk, and take care of it. If she knew that letter existed, it would devastate her.
I applaud Regan. Thank you for a reasoned approach to better health, not only for children, but for everyone.
Having spent my entire life trying to lose weight, being embarassed about my weight, feeling unattractive, feeling like a loser, stupid, dumb, undisciplined and a failure, I have finally, after 6 decades, come to understand that not everyone is meant to be slender. I am well and healthy, active, smart, well-liked and appreciated by numerous friends and family. I eat lots of fruits and veggies. I abstain from red meat sticking to chicken, turkey and fish.
Would my life be better if I wore a size 6 instead of 16? I really don’t know.
Think about it. I am more than my body.