Childhood Obesity
Michelle Obama's Clever Positioning of Childhood Obesity as a National Security Issue
People haven't been looking at childhood obesity quite the same way ever since that report came out in February. Researchers followed hundreds of children, thick and thin over 50 years, to see how they did healthwise. Any child who goes through obesity, according to the study, faces the scary possibility of living to no longer than 55, twice as often as a normal child. And so, the campaign led by the first lady, Michelle Obama, to revolutionize the way American children eat, get to play, and get routine healthcare, certainly comes at exactly the right time. Her goal is, to see America put an end to childhood obesity over the next 15 years. It's aptly titled too - the Let's Move campaign.
Of course, you don't just read a report and phone in a campaign the next day. There are politicians and leaders in private enterprise and the general citizenry to line up in support, there are doctors and schools to convince, and there are parents to get all fired up. The first lady's initiative, her biggest one one to date, has been in the works for over a year now, in conception, and in its efforts finding mass support. One of the first victories her campaign has achieved, has been in getting all three suppliers of school lunches in the country - Sodexho, Aramark and Chartwells- behind her plan to bring down the use of salt, fat and sugar, over the next five years. The makers of soft drinks and other bottled and canned beverages are signing up for the childhood obesity program too, to make more responsible drinks, and label them properly.
As for the doctors who have signed on to the plan, the American Academy of Pediatrics is revising its conventions, to have doctors routinely measure children's Body Mass Index. Football and baseball athletes are signing up too, to appear in free TV spots on NBC and Disney channels to promote a "60 minutesof Play a Day" message. This kind of coalition building is certainly the right idea. As the White House says, fighting childhood obesity isn't about coming up with a super brilliant idea and eliminating the problem in one impressive stroke. It is all about slow and painstaking lessons learned over years. However, if there are any lessons here to learn from the rough ride that the president himself has had trying to push sensible policies, things like this give the Republicans a great way to point a finger and yell "Big Brother! Big Government!".
But the first lady has a special take on the problem, to counter the Big Government allegations from the Republicans. She is holding childhood obesity up to be a national security problem. When the military recruiters show up at school and college campuses to sign young people up for service in the Armed Forces these days, the most common disqualifier always turns out to be obesity. If obesity is successfully held up to be a problem that will compromise the country's military, this plan just might have a chance.
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