Mark Price

First Lady Takes on Obesity

February 24, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
While recent First Ladies have taken on causes such as illiteracy, drug abuse, mental illness and even highway beautification, Michelle Obama last week announced a sweeping initiative to eliminate childhood obesity. What's your initial take on the "Let's Move" initiative?      [more...]

I admire the First Lady for taking on this cause, but she is working with one of her well-sculpted biceps tied behind her back. The recommendations here are mostly band-aids--the food pyramid has been an embarrassment for years, mostly funded by corn and CPG manufacturers.

To succeed, we need to buck the food interests and make some hard choices:
* Bring recess back to school and get all kids into sports and activities on a daily basis.
* Reduce corn subsidies in order to raise the price of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which can be directly tied to rises in obesity.
* Increase the number and variety of unprocessed foods that can be purchased in grocery stores at affordable prices--right now, you can buy fast food hamburgers for much less than broccoli in the grocery store.

These moves, and others like them, will be necessary to ensure that our kids can live longer than us, a trend which seems to be reversing. I hope the First Lady can leverage the bully pulpit and help these efforts to come to fruition.

For us. And for our kids.