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The theme for the Easter Egg Roll at the White House may have been 'Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move!', following the First Lady's campaign against obesity - but the menu on offer would have satisfied any couch potato. The Obamas welcomed thousands of children and their parents on to the South Lawn this morning to feast on a brunch menu that included waffles, French toast and slurpees. Later in the day, visitors were offered choices of cheeseburgers, chicken tenders, hot dog and curly fries, egg salad or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

First Lady Michelle Obama received a warm welcome from the students and teachers at an elementary school Wednesday where she promoted new tougher nutrition standards for school meals. The students clapped and cheered as Mrs. Obama entered the cafeteria at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. The first lady, who was was joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, picked up food from the lunch line before sitting with the kids and teachers. Obama and Vilsack unveiled the updated nutrition standards for school meals required by the 2010 school nutrition bill.

How many children can say they have had lunch with the First Lady? Parklawn Elementary School students were joined Wednesday by First Lady Michelle Obama, who visited the school during lunchtime to unveil new national health standards for school cafeteria meals. “When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” Obama said during a meeting with parents and press in Parklawn’s library before having a turkey-taco lunch with second- and fourth-grade students in the cafeteria. The school’s menu...

A series of stark anti-obesity ads featuring miserable, overweight kids has sparked controversy in Georgia. The ads feature children talking about their weight issues in between harrowing messages such as, “Some diseases aren’t just for adults anymore,” and “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.” Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which co-founded the Strong4Life ad campaign, intended for the ads to be grim, hoping the clips would help parents recognize the severity of the obesity epidemic in Georgia, where it is the second highest in the nation.

"Nasty, Rotty Stuff" That's the verdict from student Mayra Gutierrez on the new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District. And she's not alone, according to the L.A. Times. "At Van Nuys High School," reports the paper, "complaints about the food were so widespread that Principal Judith Vanderbok wrote to [food services director Dennis] Barrett with the plea: 'Please help! Bring back better food!'" Readers might wonder how, with all of the challenges in reading, writing and arithmetic, school administrators decided that reducing fat and sodium at the cafeteria was a top priority for L.A....

I was so fed up yesterday after hearing that Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants have been working with Michelle Obama on her "Let's Move" childhood obesity campaign and have decided to no longer offer french fries with children's meal menu items. I mere told them that I didn't appreciate their attempt to usurp my role as a parent, my children should be able to order fries on a night out at a restaurant if they would like to (because we eat nutritiously at home), and in the future my family will be eating at restaurants that honor my freedom...

They say no publicity is bad publicity, and for that Paul M. Kramer must be truly grateful. Since word of his upcoming children’s book, Maggie Goes On a Diet spread throughout the blogosphere, he has received considerable bad press.

A child nutrition bill on its way to President Barack Obama — and championed by the first lady — gives the government power to limit school bake sales and other fundraisers that health advocates say sometimes replace wholesome meals in the lunchroom.Republicans, notably Sarah Palin, and public school organizations decry the bill as an unnecessary intrusion on a common practice often used to raise money."This could be a real train wreck for school districts," Lucy Gettman of the National School Boards Association said Friday, a day after the House cleared the bill. "The federal government should not be in...

With children going back to school, parents are concerned that their youngsters are staying fit and eating right, especially those who dine in a school cafeteria. New research funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture finds that children who eat school lunches that are part of the federal government's National School Lunch Program are more likely to become overweight. The same research study found, however, that children who eat both the breakfast and lunch sponsored by the federal government are less heavy than children who don't participate in either, and than children who eat only the lunch, says economist Daniel...

Earlier this year, Michelle Obama announced she wanted to take on childhood obesity. There’s rarely been a more non-controversial topic touted in Washington, D.C. It’s like grade inflation for poll numbers.  So she rolled out this nationwide initiative, Let’s Move, earlier in 2010.   She said she learned when she and Barack were working that her children’s nutrition was suffering from not being able to cook meals for them. She said she started making changes and wanted to bring those lessons to the White House. Apparently, they were all lessons she forgot when trying to win over Iowa voters on the...

thought this might be one of those bills where someone has misread the language and interpreted what the legislation is supposed to do incorrectly.

A White House report warns, "The childhood obesity epidemic in America is a national health crisis." The review by the Task Force on Childhood Obesity says one out of every three children is overweight or obese. The task force is a key part of First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to solve the problem of obesity within a generation. President Obama ordered the comprehensive review of the issue. The report includes familiar themes, emphasizing the importance of improved nutrition and physical activity. It also calls for some new and dramatic controls on the marketing of unhealthy foods.The task force wants junk...

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – A California county is stopping restaurants from using toys to lure children to high-calorie, salt-laden food such as popular "Happy Meals" hawked by fast-food giant McDonald's. Elected officials in the county of Santa Clara, in the heart of technology center Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, voted Tuesday to enact the ban to fight an "obesity epidemic" sweeping California and the United States. "This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's love of toys to peddle high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium kids meals," said Ken Yeager, the county supervisor behind the ban. "This ordinance breaks the link between...

Michelle Obama played soccer today in D.C. to promote her Let's Move campaign to fight childhood obesity. And she wore workout clothes! They included black boot-cut yoga pants, a black, ruched, relaxed, long-sleeved tunic top, and either a black tank top or sports bra underneath. See the full look in the Michelle Obama Look Book. In other First Lady news, the white one-shoulder Jason Wu gown she wore to the inaugural balls will go on display in the Smithsonian as part of the First Ladies Collection on Tuesday.

Michelle Obama Plays Football First lady Michelle Obama took to the pitch with a group of children to encourage them to exercise regularly. 05 Mar 2010 US first lady Michelle Obama kicks a ball as she attends a free soccer clinic Photo: REUTERS Mrs Obama's participation in a football clinic in Washington coincided with the announcement of a new partnership between the US Soccer Foundation and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. The groups are launching a 25-city tour to provide children and their families with free health screenings and soccer clinics. The scheme is part of the first lady's...

First Lady to Governors: Address Child Obesity THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 20, 2010 WASHINGTON (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama appealed to governors on Saturday for help in reducing child obesity and said they had a moral and financial imperative to act. She praised states for their steps already and assured state leaders that the federal government had no interest in taking over their efforts. ''Let's stop wringing our hands and talking about it and citing statistics,'' she told governors at their winter meeting. ''Let's act. Let's move. Let's give our kids the future they deserve.'' The first lady found...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!!! February 16, 2010 Contact: (323) 556-2623 REV. PETERSON: “IS THIS THE WHITE HOUSE, OR BIG MAMMA’S HOUSE?” LOS ANGELES—Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND Action, is criticizing First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign targeting childhood obesity as one more attempt by the administration to control and encroach on the freedoms of the American people. The following is Rev. Peterson’s statement regarding this matter:

At a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States, an epidemic she said is costly and a threat to national security. “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.” The ceremony, attended by many officials of President Barack Obama’s cabinet, followed the signing earlier in the day of a...

So, Michelle Obama seems to be as delusional as her husband. Yesterday, she said that childhood obesity (a Crisis!) is a threat to national security. No, really. She actually said that: (CNSNews.com) – At a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States, an epidemic she said is costly and a threat to national security. “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security,...

CNSNews.com) – At a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States, an epidemic she said is costly and a threat to national security. “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.”

Yesterday, President Obama signed a presidential memorandum establishing a taskforce to work on first lady Michelle Obama's new issue: childhood obesity. The taskforce has 90 days to report back to the president on a suggested inter-agency strategy and action plan to help children be more active and eat better – because, of course, putting interior secretary Ken Salazar on the case will change children's eating habits. SNIP These days, though, it isn't just parents' budgets that are lean. President Obama himself called for an across-the-board spending freeze (outside of the military and entitlement programmes) in his state of the union...

Disney is getting involved in the White House's new "Let's Move" campaign. Their goal: Cure the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. For their part, Disney is creating a series of public service announcements which will feature Disney characters encouraging kids to get active and eat healthy. The spots will air later this year on Disney’s library of kid and family-oriented media platforms, including Disney Channel, Disney XD, Radio Disney and Disney.com. According to Let's Move's stats, one third of American children are affected by obesity.

Michelle Obama is today launching a campaign to tackle childhood obesity in America – while admitting that she loves unhealthy food. The First Lady has urged children to become more active, but confesses to eating burgers, fries, ice-cream and cake. The Let’s Move initiative, outlined by President Barack Obama’s wife today, aims to teach youngsters how to increase their daily physical exercise. It also pushes for schools to offer more healthy meals and calls on food companies to label nutritional information more accurately. Some of her initiatives, such as tax breaks for grocery stores to move into poorly served communities,...

EXCERPT Now, some critics are questioning whether using her own daughters as examples is fair to them. "Was it hurtful to her girls?" asked one blogger who focuses on Mommy issues. Psychology Today even questioned the first lady for using the word "chubby" to describe her daughters. While her heart is in the right place, Michelle may not have considered or been familiar with the delicate balance between preventing obesity and triggering eating disorders. She mentioned that she put her children on a diet after her pediatrician and their father felt they were getting “chubby.” Words like “chubby” don’t cause...

Michelle Obama's Tips From The White House for Battling Childhood Obesity 1)Have your personal chef limit your child's consumption of fatty foods like Foie Gras and Wagyu Beef.2)Have your kids run, not walk, to the helicopter.3)Keep an eye on your kids to make sure they're not sneaking hors d'oeuvres during your weekly cocktail parties.4)Just because your kids take a SUV to school everyday doesn't mean they have to be dropped off at the door - have your personal security clear out a one block walking distance and drop them off there.5)A good swingset costs $4,000, but that should be...

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT SIGNING OF MEMORANDUM ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY Oval Office 9:16 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I am so proud of the work that the First Lady, along with the Cabinet Secretaries behind me, have done in trying to tackle one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country, and that is the increase of childhood obesity. And because of the outstanding planning that they've done, they are going to be rolling out a terrific plan of action that involves the private sector as well as government agencies coordinating much more...

WASHINGTON (AP) - By now, it is abundantly clear that Michelle Obama loves french fries. The first lady talks about this "guilty pleasure" all the time, trying to ward off any notion that she is a nutrition nanny even as she cajoles Americans to eat better. Now, her conversation with the public about the nation's health and fitness is about to get a lot more pointed. After laying the groundwork for nearly a year, she launches a campaign on Tuesday against childhood obesity that she hopes will change the way millions of Americans eat, exercise, look and feel. < snip...

Experts from around the country meeting in San Antonio, say the problem of Latino childhood obesity is nothing less than a national security threat, and containing it will involve more than urging kids to eat fewer Twinkies, 1200 WOAI news reports. "We're not just looking at individual behavior change, but how to we set up systems to encourage these individual changes," says Kip Gallion of the group Salud America, a unit of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The conference brought together educators, health officials, neighborhood groups, and officials like a former U.S. Surgeon General to the Gunter Hotel. Gallion says...

Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to ‘Unhealthy’ Restaurant Chains Wednesday, September 02, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) - A newly released report by the Institute for Medicine and the National Research Council details strategies for local governments to combat what it calls an epidemic of childhood obesity, including enacting zoning and land-use regulations that would “restrict fast food establishments near school grounds and public playgrounds.” The report, “Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity,” was compiled by the Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention Actions for Local Governments, a committee of health care...

Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to ‘Unhealthy’ Restaurant Chains Wednesday, September 02, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) - A newly released report by the Institute for Medicine and the National Research Council details strategies for local governments to combat what it calls an epidemic of childhood obesity, including enacting zoning and land-use regulations that would “restrict fast food establishments near school grounds and public playgrounds.” The report, “Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity,” was compiled by the Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention Actions for Local Governments, a committee of health care...

ST. LOUIS (KWMU) - The death of an overweight eighth-grader during football practice has revived the debate over testing of children's hearts before they engage in sports or other strenuous activity. Anthony Troupe Jr. collapsed last week on a suburban St. Louis football field. The 13-year-old known as "Big Ant" for his 6-foot-2-inch, 383-pound body was pronounced dead at a local hospital an hour later. The cause of death won't be available for several weeks pending test results. But the boy's weight, heart and family history are suspect. Anthony's father collapsed and died two years ago at age 45 from...

It’s a spectacular day at Harmony Playground in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, with children swinging and running through sprinklers. An “icy man” with his pushcart of fruit ices stands near the jungle gym, as parents look toward the gated entrance. A second ices vendor enters, also setting up shop inside the playground’s cast-iron fence. Vicki Sell, mother of 3-year-old Katherine, tenses when the vendor starts ringing his little bell, over and over, hoping her daughter doesn’t have the typical Pavlovian response. Ever since Katherine had an inconsolable meltdown about not being able to have a treat, Ms. Sell has been trying...

Childhood obesity could be linked to the weight problems of parents in a gender-specific way, research in the EarlyBird Diabetes study has suggested. Girls whose mothers were clinically obese and boys whose fathers had the same condition were more likely to follow suit at a young age, according to a study. Researchers from the EarlyBird Diabetes Study found the trend did not exist between mothers and sons and fathers and their daughters. This suggests behavioural rather than genetic factors could hold the key to finding out why so many British children are obese, scientists claimed. The EarlyBird Study, based at...

So where's the fat? Mother sent warning letter as health police say son is just 1lb overweight By JULIE MOULT 14th May 2009 Michala Forder and Zac show the NHS letter that branded him fat Zac Forder is a lively and active child of five, weighing 3st 5lb. Unfortunately that' s a pound over the recommended guidelines - meaning he's been labelled overweight by health workers. It also means that his mother Michala received a letter warning that her son could be at risk of developing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure in later life. The letter follows...

April 8) -- A Massachusetts health board has voted to have public schools weigh students and include their body mass index, a measurement used to screen for obesity, on their report cards. Massachusetts students in first, fourth, seventh and 10th grades will be weighed and the results sent home, according to The Boston Globe. The measure follows similar efforts from Wyoming to New York City. The goal is to alert parents to a potential childhood health problem and encourage parents of overweight children to seek help for their kids. The vote comes just days after news that a national report...

Bill Clinton counts calories FNC's Greta van Susteren is on a roll lately. First she interviewed Bristol Palin and Sarah Palin ... and now Bill Clinton — it's airing tonight on "On the Record." She interviewed Clinton in his Harlem office this afternoon and talked stimulus and Hillary's singing, and about Clinton's just-announced initiative to fight childhood obesity, which dovetails with his own experience as a chubby kid. (What he does to stay fit and trim? He counts calories.) He's happy Hillary Clinton is in Indonesia: "It's the biggest Muslim country in the world, full of promise. I invested a...

Sixty one percent of the kids at Watsoville High (Watsonville, California) are eligible for free breakfast or lunch provided by the taxpayers but instead head off for the local convenience store or fast food joint. Still it's all our fault that they are fat. Watsonville faces a growing number of overweight children By JONDI GUMZ Posted: 02/08/2009 01:30:41 AM PST WATSONVILLE -- Too often, children in Watsonville are eating food that is not good for them, and it shows. About 31 percent of Watsonville's children are obese by age 8, and another 23 percent are overweight, a study for the...

All the safety measures we have taken to protect our children have produced such harmful effects as increasing the rate of childhood obesity; in fact, one in six children in America is obese, and many of them face a lifetime of chronic illness, says the Center for Disease Control. However, the situation could cure itself if children would just get off the sofa! But how do we lure children outside? One key attraction is risk, says Philip Howard, chairman of Common Good. Risk is fun, he continues, at least the moderate risks that were common in prior generations. Today, America...

Belated, Patchy Response Further Hamstrung By Inadequate Federal Attention, Experts Say The problem at first was that the problem was ignored: For almost two decades, young people in the United States got fatter and fatter -- ate more, sat more -- and nobody seemed to notice. Not parents or schools, not medical groups or the government. But since the alarm was finally sounded in the late 1990s, the problem has been the country's reaction: a fragmented, inchoate response that critics say has suffered particularly from inadequate direction and dollars at the federal level. "The sense of this as a national...

An epidemic of obesity is compromising the lives of millions of American children, with burgeoning problems that reveal how much more vulnerable young bodies are to the toxic effects of fat. In ways only beginning to be understood, being overweight at a young age appears to be far more destructive to well-being than adding excess pounds later in life. Virtually every major organ is at risk. The greater damage is probably irreversible. Doctors are seeing confirmation of this daily: boys and girls in elementary school suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and painful joint conditions; a soaring incidence of...

A Democratic lawmaker in New Mexico wants to tax televisions and video games to raise funds to fight childhood obesity and improve education in the state, officials said Friday. "I have asked our legislative council service to prepare the "Leave No Child Inside" bill and am hopeful that it will be ready for me to introduce on Monday," educator-turned-lawmaker Gail Chasey told AFP. "Leave No Child Inside" -- a play on the federal education initiative "No Child Left Behind" -- is backed by grassroots environmental group, the Sierra Club. "The bill proposes levying a one-percent excise tax on the purchase...

WASHINGTON - Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It's an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it's leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century. But cases of full-blown rickets are just the red flag: Bone specialists say possibly millions of seemingly healthy children aren't building as much strong bone as they should — a gap that may leave them more vulnerable to bone-cracking osteoporosis later in life than their grandparents are. "This potentially is a time-bomb," says Dr. Laura Tosi, bone health chief at Children's National Medical Center in Washington. Now scientists are taking the first...

Parents of 5-year-olds are to be sent official warning letters if their child is found to be obese, as part of a national programme to weigh children in schools. Ministers are bracing themselves for charges that they will stigmatise fat children when they publish proposals next month to tackle rising levels of obesity, The Times has learnt. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, is understood to have been persuaded that it is in children’s best interest if their weight is brought formally to the attention of their parents. The routine weighing of primary school pupils was reintroduced in England and Wales...

Take obese children from parents, say doctors By Nicole Martin Last Updated: 12:57am BST 17/06/2007 Severely overweight children should be taken from their parents and put into care, doctors said yesterday as it emerged that obesity had been a factor in at least 20 child protection cases in the past year.In the most extreme cases, where parents refuse to improve diets, social services should intervene to protect children's long-term health, doctors said. A motion to be debated at the British Medical Association's annual conference this month will call for overfeeding to be considered a form of parental neglect or abuse....

SOCIAL workers are placing obese children on the child protection register alongside victims thought to be at risk of sexual or physical abuse. In extreme cases children have been placed in foster care because their parents have contributed to the health problems of their offspring by failing to respond to medical advice. The intervention of social services in what was previously regarded as a private matter is likely to raise concerns about the emergence of the “fat police”. Some doctors even advocate taking legal action against parents for illtreating their children by feeding them so much that they develop health...

Chubby Toddlers May Not Outgrow It, Study Says Most Overweight Toddlers Were Overweight At 12POSTED: 9:04 am EDT September 5, 2006 CHICAGO -- Pudgy toddlers face a good chance of becoming overweight 12-year-olds, according to government research that shoots down the notion that kids just naturally outgrow early chubbiness. Children who were overweight at age 2 or later during their preschool years faced a five times higher risk of being overweight at age 12 than youngsters who were not overweight early on, the study found. Sixty percent of the children who were overweight at any time during the preschool period...

Primary schoolchildren are to be weighed regularly and their parents told if they are too fat under a Government drive to reduce obesity. Children aged four to 10 in England will be put on the scales this term to help prepare an obesity "map". From next year, parents of any obese four- to 10-year-old can expect a letter telling them that their child faces long-term health problems unless they live a healthier life. Yesterday, the Department of Health rejected suggestions that the Government was "policing" the size of children and increasing the risk that some children could be stigmatised or...

School Soda Ban •Major Soda Brands Agree to Halt Sales to Public Schools The nation's largest beverage distributors have agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to public schools, according to a deal announced Wednesday by the William J. Clinton Foundation. Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton. Diet sodas would be sold only to high schools Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson...

(AP) CHICAGO The American Academy of Pediatrics wants to turn children's doctors into activity police, encouraging them to routinely monitor how active patients and even their parents are each day to help conquer obesity. Boosting daily physical activity from infancy through the teen years is a key to fighting fat, and parents need to set good examples by also adopting active lifestyles, the group says in a new policy statement. It is published in May's Pediatrics, for release Monday. The policy says pediatricians should ask patients and parents at regular office visits how active they are. They also should document...

Olympian Silken Laumann says the solution to childhood obesity is simple: play As evidence of how far off track modern childhood has strayed, a new book on the importance of play offers detailed instructions for such classic children's games as tag, hopscotch, hide-and-seek and capture-the-flag. "The schoolyard games have been lost. Kids don't know how to play four-square, a lot of people don't know how to play hopscotch," says Silken Laumann, who over the next couple of weeks will be conducting sessions across the country instructing parents on the rules of the games most of them played as children. The...