Food & Health

Food & Health

Get healthy. Cut out fat, sugar, salt Michelle Obama is urging the nation's largest food companies to speed up efforts to make healthier foods and reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

The first lady has talked to schools and nutrition groups across the country in her effort to reduce childhood obesity. This is the first time she has confronted the food companies that make the snacks and junk food that stuff grocery aisles and school vending machines.

Mrs. Obama's campaign is largely focused on school lunches and vending machines, along with making healthy food more available and encouraging children to exercise more.

"We need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children," she said.

"While decreasing fat is certainly a good thing, replacing it with sugar and salt isn't," she urged. "This needs to be a serious industrywide commitment to providing the healthier foods parents are looking for at prices they can afford."

Former President Bill Clinton, who in 2005 partnered with the American Heart Association for a similar campaign against childhood obesity, said he was thrilled that Mrs. Obama had joined the cause.

"She'll get visibility for it that I can't get. She's a lot younger than I am. She'll relate better to a lot of the kids in the schools. They'll relate better to her. I think it's a really great thing for her to do this," Clinton said, answering questions at a childhood obesity forum sponsored by Newsweek magazine. Mrs. Obama was scheduled to participate in the forum on Wednesday.

Last week, Clinton announced that an effort aimed at replacing full-calorie soft drinks with reduced-calorie, smaller-portion beverages had reduced the number of beverage calories shipped to schools by 88 percent between 2004 and 2009.

- Posted on March 18, 2010
Submitted by Noelle14 on Thursday, 04/29/2010 - 08:54.

I would never stop eating salty food. I think it is SO good. Who wants to stop eating it? I think that it is a good idea for some people, but not me. I can eat healthy food some times, but not all the time. A lot of other kids would not like it if Mrs. Obama quit junk food.

Submitted by tutugirl05 on Thursday, 04/29/2010 - 08:37.

I totalley agree we schould reduce the junk food in american schools. We schould serve kids decent sized saleds .We schould also take out all vending machines.

Submitted by ryana12896 on Wednesday, 04/28/2010 - 13:41.

I agree with Mrs. Obama! Kids want snacks that will taste really good but won't make them feel horrible and hungry after. I know I don't want over 200 calories just for a yummy bag of chips. How about keeping the taste but the snack you eat keeps you feeling fuller longer and healthier? Maybe if most teenagers knew snacks were becoming less fatty, we wouldn't have teenagers starving themselves to stay skinny. Everyone wants to stay healthy and still eat good food. If you give an 8 year old a carrot when he ask for chips, they won't eat it because they think chips taste better. So why not have healthy food with a good taste?

Submitted by Korrigan on Tuesday, 04/27/2010 - 20:41.

Dear Mrs. Obama
You inspire us today start eating healthy foods. If I didn't stop I would be sick by now. I hope people will stop eating junk food. I really agree with your comments.

Submitted by etha on Tuesday, 04/27/2010 - 14:30.

I think she should add that all the chemicals should be banned in all food around the country because there is a little kid that died because of the corn that was fed to the cows that were used for burgers. The corn makes the cows fat really fast.But when you have the cows pooping so much from the corn puts them ankle deep in there own poop. If one cow has a disease all the cows get it because there standing in the cows poop.But chickens sound even badder chickens there are chicken that are fed chemicals that makes there fat and meat grow so fast so it has more meat that they can only walk about 2 feet then fall and they are pretty much chemical's that you are eating because a real bird or chicken is able to keep up up with all the growth it gets but buy the time you get it it is no longer a real chicken.

Submitted by Nekyra on Monday, 04/26/2010 - 13:08.

Dear Mrs. Obama

You inspire me to start eating healthy foods. If I didn't stop I would be sick by now. I hope people will stop eating junk food. I really agree with your comments.