Michelle Obama Rejects Demonizing Twinkies In Her Anti-Obesity Crusade
From Politics Daily 3/18/10 by Lynn Sweet
First lady Michelle Obama is using more carrot than stick in prodding food makers, parents, local schools and governments to step up efforts to reduce childhood obesity. She’s for the food police — but Mrs. Obama is the good cop.
That doesn’t mean she is letting stakeholders off the hook. On Tuesday, Mrs. Obama urged the nation’s food makers to produce and market healthier products, ramping up her rhetoric in her anti-childhood obesity campaign in a speech before the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
And on Wednesday, Mrs. Obama — an admitted lover of an occasional hamburger and fries — demonstrated her approach by refusing to demonize Twinkies and rejected as “extreme” having the government order warning labels on food contributing to obesity.
“A Twinkie is not a cigarette, you know,” Mrs. Obama said at a forum on obesity, sponsored by Newsweek. “And what parents need is just information about what’s in the Twinkie and how much of this we can eat. It’s not that we can’t have a Twinkie. And our kids would be pretty upset. And I am not supporting that.” The current Newsweek edition features Mrs. Obama on the cover and an essay by her and articles on childhood obesity inside.
This could be called the Michelle Doctrine: “I’m all in favor of good snacks,” she said.
“We grew up with snacks and chips,” she said. “We did. But we have to exercise more, parents have to understand what’s in the Twinkie; again, how does it fit into the overall diet. So we don’t need a warning, we need information. And we need information that’s easy to understand. That’s something that I said yesterday in the speech. You read labels now and it’s like the small print and it’s all “oleosutomay” — or I don’t — the chemicals, you can’t even pronounce them, and the portion sizes compared to one, and you’ve got a small one and a big one. And then, before you know it, you don’t know what to buy and how much to give to your kids and in what amounts. That’s the kind of information that families need.”
Using her toughest language yet, Mrs. Obama told the group, “The truth is we don’t have a moment to waste — because a baby born today could be less than a decade away from showing the first signs of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, if he or she is obese as a child. A recent study even found that 3-year-olds who were obese already had one of the symptoms of heart disease.
“So we need you all to step it up. We all need to step up in this country. This is a shared responsibility. That’s why I’ve gone to parents and I’ve asked them to do their part. They have a responsibility to watch what their kids eat and teach good habits. I’ve asked medical professionals to do their part. They have a responsibility to screen kids for obesity and help parents with these issues. Educators have a responsibility to build healthy schools. Governors and mayors have a responsibility to build healthy communities. And all of you have a responsibility as well.”
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