First Lady To Fight Childhood Obesity Epidemic

Feb 08, 2010 Published under Health, KIND Snacks, Leadership, United States

Michelle Obama is poised to highlight the need for society to tackle and overcome the childhood obesity epidemic. Many forces are arrayed at her, including socio-cultural, as well as economic. She will need all the help she can get.

The following article lists a lot of ideas for how to fight childhood obesity. But one of the most effective ways is for responsible food companies to craft and market truly healthful products that taste good and are good for you, and that are attractive to kids. It is not easy. But it can be done.

Obesity Epidemic Starts with 4 year olds!

In another sign that our society is going to have a reckoning if we don’t alter our diet and start eating healthier more wholesome foods, an alarming study shows that 20% of toddlers are obese. Study: One in five 4-year-olds is obese Obesity rates highest among American Indians, lowest among Asians (Foodbusinessnews.net, April 08, 2009) [...]
Obesity Epidemic – More Proof

For those denying that America is being enveloped by an obesity epidemic whose repercussions we cannot begin to fathom, as if data about how 1 in 3 children born this year will be diabetic and 32% of children are overweight, new data shows that adult obesity rates increased in 37 US States across the US [...]
Fighting obesity through community

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is investing in community-based solutions to childhood obesity. Foundation awards grants to help reverse obesity FoodBusinessNews.net, January 12, 2010 by Eric Schroeder PRINCETON, N.J. — The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (R.W.J.F.) has awarded multi-year grants to 41 communities across the United States as part of a landmark national program to [...]
Obesity and Complicity by the Food Industry

Cathy Arnst wrote a compelling article in BusinessWeek here, about the Food Industry’s complicity in fostering obesity in society. While individuals ultimately have to be responsible for their actions, misleading advertising and claims definitely contribute to this epidemic, as I have written in the past (ie, Corn Refiners Assoc lying re HFCS, COKE lying about [...]
32% of US Children are Overweight

And the corollary to the earlier post is that obesity in children has reached epidemic proportions, causing Type 2 diabetes and many other health complications that stay with them beyond childhood for the rest of their lives. There are other key health challenges to children, that the food industry needs to tackle… What drives the [...]

Daniel Lubetzky