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Michelle Obama combats Obesity with Let’s Move

posted by ChickSpeak
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 3:23pm CST

On February 9, first lady Michelle Obama spoke out against childhood obesity and introduced her new plan of action called Let’s Move. The goal of this nationwide campaign is to solve the issues surrounding the epidemic of obesity within this generation so that children born in the present will face adulthood with a healthy weight.

The medical condition of Obesity occurs when excess body fat has built up to the extent that it may cause adverse effects on the health of the individual. If not treated, it will lead to a reduced life expectancy and will increase various health problems.

Obesity is determined by a measurement of the body mass index(BMI), which compares weight and height. Someone who is over-weight (pre-obese) will have a BMI between 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2. The measurements consider someone as obese when their BMI is greater than 30 kg/m2.

Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis according to MayoClinic.com.

Obesity is mostly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical exercise of any sort, and genetic susceptibility. However, there are few cases that are caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness, thus meaning that a diet high in saturated fats and calories is mostly to blame.

Obama’s new plan aims to improve nutrition in schools, help to educate parents on choosing a healthier diet plan for themselves as well as their children, initiate school and community wide opportunities for physical activities, and eliminate all areas in the U.S. that may not have access to healthy food choices.

”Childhood obesity or excess weight threatens the healthy future of one third of American children. We spend $150 billion every year to treat obesity-related conditions, and that number is growing” says Obama.

“Obesity rates tripled in the past 30 years, a trend that means, for the first time in our history, American children may face a shorter expected lifespan than their parents” says Obama.

“Military officials, looking at a pool of increasingly thick recruits, have said that the nation’s weight problem is a security issue as well as an economic one. Obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service” says the San Francisco Chronicle.
As a part of this fast food generation, I attribute a great deal of my societal education to Nickelodeon, a T.V. channel which pretty much any kid in America is probably well acquainted with.

Nickelodeon has offered to take a stand alongside Obama to support her Let’s Move initiative by incorporating more health and wellness encouragement on top of their efforts with their Let’s Just Play campaign.

Since this channel and their website are so widely accessed by children ages 2-14, they will have an enormous impact on children, and will hopefully teach kids healthy eating habits which should make parents across the nation extremely happy.

Obama’s campaign comes from a personal issue in which she found herself without any time to cook a decent, healthy meal for her family. Her attention was not captured until her pediatrician told her that she was going to have to make some changes in her daughters’ diets.

Obama said that she started making “some short easy changes, but they led to some really good results.”

These short easy changes include cutting out fast food, cooking your meals, and being physically active. Chicks, if you want to help contribute to this campaign, start with yourselves. Improve your diet and establish a regular active routine.

One day many of you will be parents yourselves if you already are not. By cementing healthy habits in yourself it will be easier to teach your children just by your example. Let’s increase our life expectancy and our children’s. Let’s get moving.

Fatima Meadows attends Appalachian State University.She thinks that Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign has come just in the nick of time, and fully supports the notion to combat childhood obesity. Fatima is a former cheerleading coach, and understands the importance of childhood fitness and wants to do whatever she can to help.