Michelle Obama Fighting Obesity: Chefs Moves to Schools Program

*** First Lady Michelle Obama's new anti-obesity program of engaging chefs to go into the public schools to teach about food.





From Denny: First Lady Michelle Obama is doing her part to put America back on the right path when it comes to getting our bodies back in balance. She is starting with America's children. She visits public schools across the country to preach the Gospel of Healthy Food and Smaller Portions.

While she takes a lot of ribbing from cartoonists about this subject she is also right. Obesity is an epidemic in America and we have to do something to stem the tide. Over the decades, as restaurants have fought for market share with consumers, they have super sized the portions to the point far too many Americans are now fat, fat to the point of obesity.

So, it was one smart move for Michelle Obama to engage America's chefs to help her teach in their public schools about the subject of healthy diets, where food comes from and develop health food habits.

The long established fact from many studies over the years is that children learn better and have faster response times when they eat healthy diets and eat breakfast before coming to school.

Who knows? Maybe with chefs teaching regularly in their areas many kids will want to choose cooking and teaching about healthy food habits as their profession to the next generation. One thing is for sure, America's kids will learn a lot of valuable information they can put to good use at home now with their families and also later when they grow up and leave home to become independent.

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First Lady Pushes 4 Healthier Food From Food Companies

From Denny: First Lady Michelle Obama is pushing hard on America's food manufacturers to speed up the effort to lose the excess fat, salt and sugar in foods. "We need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering," she said.

She's also calling on the nation's grocery store chains to start posting calorie counts and fat levels on all the shelves and deli self-serve areas.

Michelle Obama is committed to conquering childhood obesity in less than a generation. She has talked to schools and nutrition groups, going after junk food and snacks that pack school vending machines and grocery store aisles.

Food manufacturers are on notice from more than the First Lady. There is a child nutrition bill moving through Congress that would throw out junk food from the public school system across the nation. That sure would dig into those companies' profits.

And there is more: The Food and Drug Administration might have been asleep at the switch or held on a short choke chain during the Bush-Cheney years. Not so now. The agency is now cracking down on misleading labeling on food packages.

The First Lady has also called for less confusing food labeling, better portion sizing and increased marketing for healthy foods prepared in healthy ways. Like she said to the manufacturers, "While decreasing fat is good, don't replace it with sugar. This needs to be a serious industry wide commitment to provide healthier foods."

This new Obama campaign is aimed at school vending machines, school lunches and pushing children to exercise more.




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