First Lady Michelle Obama’s Childhood Obesity Initiative

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THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON – First Lady Michelle Obama today announced an ambitious national goal of solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight and unveiled a nationwide campaign at LetsMove.gov  to help achieve it.

The national Let’s Move initiative has four major components: 

1. Giving parents the tools, support and detailed information so they can make healthier choices for their families. This includes consumer friendly, front-of-package labeling, and involving major media and entertainment companies, top professional athletes, and well-known cartoon characters, in spreading the First Lady’s message. 

2. Serving healthier food at schools. Among many proposed changes, major school food suppliers have already agreed to start reducing the amount of sugar, fat and salt in school meals, to increase whole grains, and to double the amount of fruit and vegetables in the next 10 years. 

3. Giving access to healthy, affordable food. Some of the main changes that have been proposed are, bringing grocery stores to underserved areas, helping places such as convenience stores to carry healthier foods, and government grants to establish and improve access to, farmers markets. 

4. Increasing physical activity. Children need a minimum of an hour of active play a day, yet, the average American child spends nearly eight hours a day on computers, video games, cell phones, or watching TV and movies. Proposals to address this imbalance include expanding and modernizing the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge, increasing the number of Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards, funding to support schools in their efforts to improve the quality and availability of physical education, and involving professional athletes to promote “60 Minutes of Play a Day” through sports clinics, public service announcements and more.

Music can be a great way to support this new program. The easy-to-remember lyrics and catchy melodies of songs can bring to children — in a fun, upbeat way —  the messages of eating nutritious food and maintaining an active lifestyle. And, of course, moving to the energizing beat of a lively song can make exercise a great experience on all levels. So, let’s move!

The song, Let’s Move was written eight years ago by Laszlo Slomovits of the popular children’s music duo Gemini. While not an official song for the first lady’s initiative. it sums up the fourth point of increasing physical activity.  It encourages kids (and adults) of all shapes, sizes, physical abilites or fitness levels, to move in the ways that are most fun for each of us — whether it’s in an organized sport or simply going for a walk. And the lively beat of the song is great to move and dance to. So, Let’s Move!

Listen to Let’s Move in the audio player, below.