Washington: First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday launched a major push against childhood obesity, which affects around one in three US children and threatens to make the current generation of Americans the first to live shorter lives than their parents.
President Barack Obama signed an executive memorandum setting up a task force on obesity headed by the First Lady.
"My administration is committed to redoubling our efforts to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, engages families and communities, and mobilizes both public and private sector resources," the memorandum said.
President Barack Obama signed an executive memorandum setting up a task force on obesity headed by the First Lady.
"My administration is committed to redoubling our efforts to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, engages families and communities, and mobilizes both public and private sector resources," the memorandum said.
"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 have in this country," Obama said as he signed the memorandum, his wife`s hand on his arm and the secretaries of health, education, agriculture and the interior looking on.
Because of obesity and the illnesses associated with it, including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, doctors have warned that the current generation of US children could be the first to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents.
Nearly one in five US kids aged six to 19 are obese and one in three is overweight.
Even babies are not immune to the scourge, with some 10 percent classified as obese.
The childhood obesity rate tripled in the United States between 1980-1999, creating an epidemic blamed on lack of exercise, a poor diet that`s heavy on fat and sugar and not enough fresh fruits and vegetables.
The swelling obesity rate in the United States has also seen medical costs associated with excessive weight balloon from around 78 billion dollars a year in 1998 to around 147 billion dollars annually in 2006, a study released last year showed.
"We must act now to improve the health of our nation`s children and avoid spending billions of dollars treating preventable disease," said the memorandum signed by Obama.
Last year, at the first-ever major meeting on obesity in the United States, childhood obesity was described as the country`s worst health crisis, and parents were urged to ban television in kids` rooms as a first step to making sure children got out and exercised.
Lawmakers have been encouraged to slap a tax on sugary drinks to combat obesity, and several schools have banned junk food from vending machines and even chocolate milk from the canteen in an effort to fight the fat.
"We want to eliminate this problem of childhood obesity in a generation," Michelle Obama said in a television interview Tuesday.
The first lady, who before her husband`s election was vice president of a Chicago hospital, was also firmly on the warpath against obesity in the first year of Obama`s administration.
She has highlighted healthy living by planting a vegetable garden on the lawn of the White and joining in physical activities -- including showing off impressive hula-hooping skills -- with US schoolchildren.
"We`re launching a nationwide campaign called `Let`s Move`," Michelle Obama said, adding that the importance of physical activity is something she stresses with her own young daughters, Sasha and Malia.
"My kids have to get up and move. They can`t sit in front of the TV. I have my girls involved in sports because I want them as young women to understand what it feels like to compete and to win and to run and to sweat. This is about all of that as well," she said.
Bureau Report
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M
Karunanidhi today said frequent postponement of the Pennagaram assembly bypoll might lead to suspicion among people that the Election Commission was biased towards opposition AIADMK.
The postponement might also create doubts about the EC`s
`non-partisan` functioning, he said, writing in the DMK
mouthpiece `Murasoli`.
Karunanidhi was referring to PMK founder S Ramadoss`s
reported remarks that the EC was acting in a partisan manner
after the by-election, scheduled for January 20, was further
postponed following allegations of irregularities in voters`
list by some `friendly parties` of AIADMK.
Recalling Ramadoss` words that "special care" was taken
by the EC to invite AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa for its Diamond
Jubilee Celebrations in New Delhi, Karunanidhi said, "as Dr
Ramadoss says, one has to ask with regret, can those who have
to uphold democracy function in a partisan manner?."
Karunanidhi said elections were postponed following
complaints of irregularities in voters` list by "parties which
are not contesting".
He alleged that EC postponed the election without
consulting any officials on the veracity of the complaints,
thus "affecting the democratic process".
The EC had deferred the bypoll earlier as the campaign
dates clashed with the Pongal festivities in January.
Leaders
of eight political parties in the state had approached the EC
on February one, accusing ruling DMK of deleting names of
25,000 voters of the constituency and demanded that the
electoral rolls be finalised only after considering the cases
of these voters.
-PTI
