“Let’s Move”

In the United States, one in three children is obese or seriously overweight. Michelle Obama has vowed to fight the scourge. On February 9, she jump started the effort. Will it be a mission impossible or the struggle of a generation?

Michelle O. might not see the end of the scourge during her four or eight years in the White House. But she is making it a humanitarian cause in the United States. How can we stop the scourge of childhood obesity? Adults are no better off, with two in every three heavily overweight or obese. However, the FLOTUS [first lady of the United States] “soldier” decided to address the generation that eat in school, and can be reached through the administration of her husband and advice to parents.

Before her, in November 2007, Laura Bush had shown interest in this matter by participating in the Fight Childhood Obesity endeavor. But the novelty here is the consistency of the approach designed by Michelle Obama. She has perfectly designed the complexity of operations that will be used to achieve the goal. Do not bother telling children to stop eating too much sugar if manufacturers can help. It’s not worth the struggle to improve meal trays if children are slumped on couches and do not do engage in physical activity. Do not bother with haste and flashy actions, when it could take at least a generation, along with small changes of common sense and general acceptance.

She proceeded as the key role model, showing in her own family’s life where the issues were: working parents, use of quick meals, snacking, lack of sports, “TV activity” … She did not blame anybody and she portrayed herself naturally. From there, she designed a very simple plan of action; the most symbolic was the plan “let’s move,” which encouraged children to move. Commercials and sports celebrities explain how to keep fit. All of this is a very classy, but new tone at the White House. Meanwhile, she has multiplied the opportunities to show that spending time to grow vegetables or make oneself a meal permitted true food “management.” And this works even for those with modest incomes. It is time consuming but worthwhile.

On February 9, at the White House, she completed the plan and will continue to improve it with consistency. She presented a plan that meets all three major U.S. suppliers of kitchens: Sodexo, Chartwells Schools DS, and Aramark. They pledged to reduce fats, sugars and salt in meals delivered in the next five years. It is a giant step. The same thing is required for the giant soda companies. Each distributor will indicate on each box “friendly” formulas, and it will hopefully be used as guiding information. Suddenly, the American Academy of Pediatrics will launch a campaign to have all doctors measure patients’ body mass index. In turn, the great champions of 12 leagues (football and baseball) are initiating a program of “60 minutes of play a day,” which will be aired for free on TV channels including NBC and the Disney Channel. Here’s to taking off the pounds, kids! With Michelle, it won’t take long before they see results.