U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama Unveils Initiative to Battle Childhood Obesity and president Obama creates first-ever taskforce to fight childhood obesity.
One in three American
children is overweight. It's a statistic quoted by U.S. First Lady Michelle
Obama as she announced a new initiative called "Let's Move". The
nationwide campaign aims to combat childhood obesity by teaching children about
exercising and better nutrition.
Exercise is one of the goals of Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative.
This is another one Nutrition. He's eating a carrot.
The U.S. Surgeon General says one in three American children is overweight,
making U.S. kids the largest of all developed countries. And in the past three
decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled. The First Lady wants
to eliminate that distinction within a generation.
Mrs. Obama is promoting more physical fitness and healthier food in school
cafeterias. She says 30 million American children get the majority of their
calories from foods they eat at school. The administration is proposing an
additional 10 billion dollars over the next decade to set nutrition standards
for schools. She says "what we
don't want is a situation where parents are taking all the right steps at home,
and then their kids undo all that work when they go to school with salty, fatty
foods in the school cafeteria."
The First Lady says treatments for obesity-related illnesses cost nearly 150 billion dollars every year. Pediatricians say if healthy habits begin at young ages, obese children will slim down and won't grow into obese adults. She says “Everyday we see overweight toddlers who struggle to learn to walk or run. Overweight can cause our children respiratory problems. A youngster who develops diabetes in his teens, may need a kidney transplant by the time he's 30."
Health experts recommend that children get an hour of active exercise daily. But that's difficult with American kids spending seven and half hours watching TV or playing with electronics.
President Obama named the first ever taskforce to combat childhood obesity. And he wants a plan on his desk within three months.
Mrs. Obama says her idea isn't to eliminate fun foods from a child's life, but to balance the burgers and fries with vegetables, fruit and a workout.
