On Michelle Obama’s obesity campaign

	Tweet

First lady Michelle Obama has chosen what she hopes will be her legacy for the nation: the “Let’s Move” campaign to curb childhood obesity. No one can argue with her target. About two-thirds of American adults, and about a third of American children, are overweight or obese.

The country spends $150 billion every year treating obesity-related diseases, most of which are preventable. Military officials, looking at a pool of increasingly thick recruits, have said that the nation’s weight problem is a security issue as well as an economic one. Obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.

But combatting this problem will require Obama to confront deeply entrenched, highly political forces. Much of the food business is built around marketing unhealthy food to both adults and children, and it won’t go down without a fight. 

We know: The Bay Area has been on the frontlines of the war against childhood obesity for years. Many of the first lady’s ideas - including banning junk food from school vending machines - originated here, amidst derisive laughter.

We know all about the intense lobbying campaigns by the food industry to keep junk food in vending machines, and we know all about the rhetorical bombast about how we would be depriving schools of important funding sources and limiting students’ “choice” about whether they should eat garbage. We can only imagine what the White House will face as it rolls this out on a national level. Washington got a small taste of likely resistance this week when the beverage industry managed to kill a once popular proposal to tax sugary drinks.

Michelle Obama won’t call for a soda tax, but she has persuaded the beverage industry to adopt a uniform calorie labeling code for sodas. She’s also positioned her campaign as a partnership between the federal government and a variety of other entities, including mayors, medical professionals, educators and parents.

Some of her proposals have real bite, like $1 billion in federal money to improve school breakfasts and lunches. Some others - like reducing “food deserts” (areas where people don’t have access to nutritious food) are crucial but need details and more financing. It’s clear that the first lady has a sophisticated understanding of the problem’s many aspects, including families’ increasingly stretched time and money.

What’s unclear is how much support she’ll get on Capitol Hill. If the fate of the soda tax and Congress’ continued subsidies to the nation’s huge farms are any indication, it will be a challenge. At least Obama’s campaign will put our representatives on notice.

San Francisco Chronicle

RELATED STORIES:
Family doctors have highest discipline rate   Worker shortages threaten health advances   U.S. Medicare to test paying for flu drugs   Mexico breathes easier but flu pandemic likely   The human and economic cost of heart disease in Europe   28 Afghan children die in disease outbreaks   Childhood viral infection may be a cause of obesity   Judge skeptical of tobacco argument in U.S. suit   Set aside funds now for bird flu, WHO expert says   Obese people use more meds: study   Obesity not linked to breast cancer in Mexican-American women   US Medicare lays out regions for coverage

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

Anything that Mrs. Obama can do to spotlight this problem is appreciated. We have a entire generations health at stake.

posted by World on 02/24/2010 at 11:59 am -08:00