Let's Move Agenda

[talon]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234885

I think Mrs. Obama has good intentions.

I think she's going about this the wrong way by attacking the children, their parents, and the schools. She's going after the end product, not the cause. At no point in her program does she even address the real issues: food manufacturers and crime.

Food manufacturers lard up food with ingredients it doesn't need (salt, sugar, HFCS, soy, wheat, etc. in foods that don't normally have these ingredients or using excessive quantities of them), place ads that are highly attractive to children for these unhealthy foods, and pay for placement of these unhealthy foods where children can easily see or reach them (vending machines is schools, for example). She doesn't address any of those issues, doesn't even suggest food manufacturers be held accountable for the corruption of food. Getting more grocery stores into neighborhoods won't do any good if they're stocked with manufactured foods and sponsoring farmers markets in areas where there are few farmers won't improve access to real food - I should know; I live in an area with a surprising paucity of farmers growing real food - they grow cotton, feed corn, wheat, soy, and precious little else. Parents can't make healthier choices when there are none available and until food manufacturers stop putting all these flavor enhancers and boosters and non-food things into real food, they won't get them, either.

Hit the source and change that, and the other changes will flow much easier.

Getting food manufacturers to label their foods only leads to creative ways to hide the bad stuff - as anyone with a soy or wheat allergy can tell you.

Promoting BMI over real health really defeats the purpose because height and weight have very little to do with actual body fat. I really wish the whole BMI thing would just go away, it is such an inaccurate tool it's virtually useless.

The Food Pyramid and Food Atlas would be more powerful if food manufacturers were held accountable for the so-called food they market, but are still useful tools. They existed before Mrs. Obama, though, so I can't credit her with them, but I'll give her credit for making them more visible.

Reinstating recess and gym in schools would do a lot to get kids moving and liking it - although there will be the door huggers who refrain from romping with the rest of the kids (I was one of those). Something else that would make a huge difference in kids' activity levels is making the outdoors accessible to kids again - reducing crime rates, making parents feel safe about letting the kids range freely outdoors, providing more neighborhood parks that let kids ride bikes, trikes, skateboards, and other wheeled conveyances, play ball games, play chase games, and hang out. That means police need to watch for crimes instead of pre-emptively chasing unsupervised kids as well as families out of public parks for "loitering" (they don't do that where you live? Awesome!). It also means that waste spaces could be converted to playgrounds (sigh - and not secret food gardens).

If parents don't feel safe letting their kids walk to school or play outside, then they just aren't going to. I used to spend hours outside when I was a kid, playing in copses, fields, and along creek and river banks and my mother didn't know where I was until I showed up back at home for bedtime or chores. Kids today don't often have that freedom, and they don't have that freedom because other adults prey on them instead of watching out for them - and that has to change.

I don't see Mrs. Obama addressing those two important things: crime and food manufacturers.

Fix those and the rest will be much easier to implement.