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First Lady Working to Change U.S. Attitudes on Health

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When President Obama arrives in Latin America March 19, he will bring his personal commitment to fitness and health.

That is a good thing, because traveling with him will be the person directing a national fitness and nutrition campaign in the United States: his wife.

First lady Michelle Obama started the national Let’s Move initiative in response to evidence that the number of overweight children in the United States has tripled during the past 30 years and that nearly one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese.

Mrs. Obama has said that if these trends continue, one-third of U.S. children born since 2000 could get diabetes later in their lives and many others could have other serious weight-related problems, like asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

A big increase in these diseases would raise the cost of health care for everyone in the United States. Right now, according to the Let’s Move campaign, the annual cost of treating diseases related to obesity totals $147 billion.

Obesity can have long-term effects in less obvious areas, such as national security. “Right now, today, nearly 27 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds are too overweight to serve in our military,” Mrs. Obama said at a recent conference. ”And for many who make the cut, years of inactivity and poor nutrition mean that they often are still overweight and out of shape, and they’re far more likely to injure themselves in basic training.”

THE ROLE OF THE FIRST LADY

In the United States, the first lady has no official job, but she has influence because she is highly visible. History shows that most U.S. first ladies influenced public policy directly or indirectly, and recent first ladies have had as much education and experience as their husbands, providing them with valuable skills.

During her time as first lady, Laura Bush, who has a master’s degree in library science, called attention to the importance of being able to read, federal support for U.S. libraries and better training for teachers. Worldwide, she focused on women’s education and health.

Mrs. Obama launched Let’s Move in February 2010, and she has involved government, community organizations and private companies. She has established relationships with companies that make snack foods, visited schools, spoken to grocery retailers, met with restaurant associations and appeared at events to highlight the need for exercise and healthy eating.

The first lady’s involvement, according to Katherine Tallmadge, a Washington nutritionist, author and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, is changing people’s thinking. “Just that the first lady is pushing it is so important,” Tallmadge said. “She is giving this issue the attention it has needed for decades.”

Tallmadge said Mrs. Obama makes the problem easy to understand. “She has done such a good job distilling the issue to two very simple things that people can do.”

The first is adding simple, daily activity, such as walking. Wearing a pedometer that measures distance can encourage more walking. “It doesn’t have to be ‘exercise.’ The slogan is ‘let’s move,’ and it’s the truth. For kids it’s running around and playing,” Tallmadge said.

The second important point, Tallmadge said, is to add vegetables and fruits to daily diets. For most people, this reduces the higher calorie foods being eaten and decreases overall calorie intake.

“Those two habits can produce dramatic results,” Tallmadge said.

DON’T SIT STILL

Mariah Burton Nelson, director of the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation, appreciates Mrs. Obama’s willingness to do what she talks about.

“Michelle Obama is serving as a catalyst to get people moving. She’s such an unbelievable role model. Every time she shows up somewhere in workout clothes, I can’t stop grinning,” said Nelson, who has written several books on sports and fitness. It is especially important for adults to model physical activity for children, she added.

“Kids are overweight because they eat too much and move too little,” Nelson said. “Children need about 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity every day.”

A simple way to incorporate physical activity is to use it as a means of transportation where it is safe, according to Nelson. “In the United States, the Safe Routes to School program is encouraging children to walk or bike — or ride skateboards or scooters — to school and back. [Older] kids should be encouraged to travel on foot or via bicycle” for other activities as well.

Since the Let’s Move campaign started, the U.S. Congress has reauthorized child nutrition programs for five years and added $4.5 billion in funding for these programs over 10 years through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Many companies have agreed to change some of their marketing and labeling practices, and community groups have started local programs to encourage exercise and better nutrition.

President Obama established the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, and it has developed an action plan to reduce the childhood obesity rate to 5 percent — where it was before starting to rise in the late 1970s — by 2030. The report makes 70 recommendations for ways to reduce the rate, but health experts think the first lady makes it much easier.

For more on Let’s Move, see its website.