Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Let's Move

letsmove.gov is First lady Michelle Obama's response to the obesity epidemic that is sweeping our nation. While the information here is still valuable information, I find her approach to be the same as everyone else's and not a real solution to the problem. I am currently writing a letter in response to her approach and will post that here soon.
With that aside, I appreciate the effort and will only focus on the positive aspects of the site.
There are 5 main sections of the site - about let's move, food and nutrition, physical activity, steps to success and join let's move.
The about section includes information on what obesity means and how it is affecting our children. I believe this is a real issue. We are getting fatter and our children are getting fatter. We eat poorer quality food and move less. The rest of this section is how Let's Move came to be and all the hoopla around the movement.
The food and nutrition is further broken down into 4 sections - Healthy Moms, Healthy Families, Healthy Schools, and Healthy Communities. I'm a little disappointed with the title Healthy Moms but it's about eating well during pregnancy so Dad's can't really be included. I like this approach - it's not just a family problem, it's a cultural problem and Let's Move takes that into account.
Under her Healthy Schools, Michelle Obama has started a program to help schools develop better menus with higher quality nutrition. Again, a step in the right direction.
The Physical Activity again breaks down - family, school, community.
The Take Action offers worksheets and charts to help individuals and groups to become more healthy - focusing on more than one aspect of health.
Join us allows the viewer to connect with groups in their area or to start one.
This is a good basic site to visit and offers parents a chance to see what changes are coming. I believe in supporting this cause because it is the individual that makes the change. If we show that we want this, then the world will fall in step. We can't get the USDA to change the foods they offer school districts if we don't speak louder than the companies that serve them now. We make the change, we can't wait for someone else to make the change for us.

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