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Associated Press
Michelle Obama praised the food industry on Friday for its efforts to market healthier foods but said more needs to be done.
At a speech before a childhood obesity summit, the first lady encouraged the industry to put better labels on food, limit marketing of unhealthy foods, and do more to promote healthy foods.
She invoked her pre-White House years as a working mom who would run through the grocery store trying to make healthy decisions for her children.
"I didn't exactly have time to peruse the aisles, thoughtfully reading labels, and I know my experiences are not unique," she said.
She praised companies like Disney, Mars, Hershey and PepsiCo. that she said have made efforts to reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children. But she said, "We have a lot of work to do."
Mrs. Obama encouraged companies not just to limit junk food marketing but to promote healthier foods.
The first lady did not mention a government effort to establish voluntary guidelines for marketing foods to kids. That effort was directed by Congress in 2009 and the Federal Trade Commission issued a draft of the guidelines in 2011, urging companies only to market foods to children if they are low in fats, sugars and sodium and contain specified healthy ingredients. The effort fizzled after food and advertising companies balked and conservatives on Capitol Hill criticized the effort.
On Friday, Mrs. Obama appealed directly to the food industry to limit marketing and promote healthy foods. She cited studies that showed kids would reach for vegetables if they were marketed with popular characters such as Elmo.
"When businesses step up it's important to applaud their efforts, but also to encourage them to do even more," she said.
Mrs. Obama also encouraged parents not just to feed their children well but to stay healthy themselves.
Reducing childhood obesity is "a moral obligation to our children" and "a patriotic obligation to our country," she said.
Mrs. Obama was joined by Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning at the Partnership for Healthier America's summit. The private group was formed in conjunction with the first lady's Let's Move campaign to combat childhood obesity and works to secure commitments from industry and others for healthier eating and fitness.
"What inspires me now is that so many Americans are joining together and looking at the crisis of obesity in America," Booker said.
Leave a Comment:
Communist.
Just kidding, I actually agree. I would like for labels to include GMO information on them.
Actually, I expect that she will again face severe criticism by the RWNJ's for butting into their lives. Despite the fact that she is trying to do something good, they can't get past their hatred of the Obama's to say anything positive even once in a while.
First ladies, while not elected to the office, do have a wonderful opportunity to do good, and draw attention to these matters. Encouraging healthy eating habits and trying to prevent diabetes and obesity should be a no-brainer for everyone, but they just don't give her a break.
She's a classy lady, and is having some fun while trying to convey this important message.
Where are the specifics? Just more generalities from the White House. If you have something to say; say it !!
I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. There comes a time when parents just need to be accountable, and the government should not be responsible for passing additional labeling requirements on to the food manufacturers. Mrs. Obama says "I didn't exactly have time to peruse the aisles, thoughtfully reading labels, and I know my experiences are not unique." She actually hits it on the head: If you thoughtfully read the label, all of the information is there to make a decision. If you don't have time, don't make it the manufacturer's problem. Are we stupid? Do we as parents not already know a good food from a bad food? And if we don't, can we do research in a reasonable amount of time on the interweb regarding additives in the foods we eat? STOP OVER-REGULATING. STOP TRYING TO 'FIX STUPID'. If you're stupid, you're stupid, and I'm sorry but it's not the governments job to fix you. Learn to read. Learn to ask questions. Don't make Mrs. Obama ask them for you.
I encourage everyone to read "Wheat Belly", a book by Dr. William Davis, that quite thoroughly describes how the Gluten in wheat is what is causing much of the obesity, joint inflammation & pain, and other health problems that did not exist prior to about 50 years ago. Ever look at family photo album pictures, and wonder why your relatives 3 & 4 generations ago were slender, with very few fatties in the family? The genetically modified wheat of today is NOT the same wheat of the several decades ago, and the differences in the unnatural wheat was never tested by food scientists and research doctors for usefulness in the human body.
Whole Wheat is NOT a healthy food. Find out the reasons why. Read the book. And if you see any of your health problems and their descriptions in the book, eliminate eating wheat in any of its forms.
Obviously some people prefer to comment without READING the article. As the article notes, Ms. Obama is asking the industry to voluntarily address the issue. And she is urging parents to be responsible in how they feed their children. Good labeling helps parents do this, since most of us are not food chemists. And, marketing directed to the child market can undermine parental efforts. So she is asking them to only market healthy foods directly to kids. Seems like a no brainer except to people whose hatred of the Obamas makes them so blind they can't see it!
Give that bimbo a broom to push. That's about all she's good for.
I have repeatedly emailed The White House and the First Lady asking foods containing GMO be labeled as such.
Other countries will no longer import much USA food. GMO and additives and animals raised with antibiotics, hormones and beta agonists are not healthy to eat. So far NO REPLY from Mr. or Mrs Obama.
Monsanto guy controls our food safety. Something is wrong with this picture... what's up with that Mrs Obama?
i don't think gmo foods are dangerous
You may not; in fact, I do not but some people do. So, since it is supposedly a free country, why not label the food and let each individual decide?
How many people will be bowled over by the word 'healthy'? And they will not notice that it is strange that no mention is made of how that would improve food labeling.
To anyone interested in related topics see the new movie: A Place At The Table.
Lets label the foods that are GMO. that would be the best start.
there's no good evidence that gmo's are dangerous
There's no good evidence that gmo are safe.
Label it and let the peoples decide if they want to buy it or not.
I'm not against the Obamas but honestly, they won't do anything that makes a difference. They'll appeal to the food manufacturers and then leave it up to them. They won't reply to the email asking for GMOs to be labeled, they won't define 'healthy'. Again...they won't do anything that makes a difference.
@Jill-colorado
If you agree with her goals, support her efforts.
If you wish to expand those goals, that is ok - but doing so by criticizing her effort diminishes it and trivializes your point.
And leads to comments like #7 and #8.
While Michelle Obama is doing this, Barack is busy appointing Monsanto cronies to his cabinet and other key administration posts. In doing so, he has become the biggest promoter of (unlabeled) genetically-modified food we have. This seems to be in direct opposition to what his wife is promoting.
Gee, appointing his cronies to his admin is wrong? Why didn't you speak up when other past Presidents did that. And when a diaster hits, just remember" you're doing a hell of a good job Brownie." Yep that was a good crony appointment, wasn't it?
Nothing irritates me more than ridiculous comments like SallyAnn's. Just how do you know stanmrak DIDN'T speak up when past presidents did it? You don't. Not everyone is a partisan hack who justifies everything "their side" does, and castigates everything done by the "other side." Some people have a problem with the actual issue, not just the person behind it.
@classy23
Real classy comment. The only time stanmark speaks up is when it pertains to the D party. Besides, did he appoint you to be his croney, or maybe I hit a nerve by speaking the truth?
classy's right,
The "don't complain about this since you did not complain about that" has to be one of the most ridiculous argument ever.
Right along the "don't complain about this since that other country is doing this a lot more" and "this issue is not important since that other issue make more victims".
please just look good and keep your mouth shut like Jackie did and we will remember you fondly
I enjoy The 1st Lady's big round poofo.
Jackie was actually the a very socially committed first lady. Her activism centered on the arts and making the Whie House accessible to the public. You must be too young to remember!
Michelle has pretty much taken over the USDA Food program and now toddlers can only be given skim milk in child care facilities. Might as well give them water.
Skim milk, Almond milk, Soy milk, and Coconut milk are all better choices then 1%, 2%, Vitamin D, and Whole milk. You shouldn't be drinking your fat or your calories. Skim milk is not bad, tastes good, and is very good for you. You are also not drinking your fat or fat calories.
I gree with inlviinAZ.
Q1: HOW CAN YOU TELL it is unnatural for humans to be drinking milk?
A1: Nature. THE PROOF:
Q2: Have you EVER seen two adult milk cows in the middle of a pasture, sucking on each other's udders? EVER?!?
A2: No, you have NOT. Human adults do not even drink the milk of their own titties nor of other female human's milky udders. It is only natural for human babies to be drinking their mom's own beast milk [haha] .
All the so-called vittamins and nutrients the Dairy Pushers say you should get from milk, you can get better nutrition from Skim milk, Almond milk, Soy milk, Hemp Milk and Coconut Milk. You get better nutrition WITHOUT the unnatural growth hormones, pesticides from cow foood, bacteria, puss, and undigestible lactose your body can do without.
It is High Time for the 'merkin public to get SMART, and quit doing what the Money Makers tell you to do in their TV food commercials.
If you want to distract yourself with something funny and odd about my take on Mother's breast milk, view
YouTube: Breastfeeding... at 8.
Skim milk is a much healthier choice and tastes fine. For that matter there is nothing wrong with water either.
The more regulations on the labels, the higher the cost of the food. Obama is going to starve the poor by making food too expensive. What a plan!
With computerized printing there is virtually NO cost to nutritional labeling of food. This is a straw man that big Agro wants folks to believe. They are already printing a label, after all. What they put on the label is a one time series of keystrokes for millions of containers or markers of products. The idea that poor people will starve because Conagra has to enter a few keystrokes in a computer program once for a product is LUDICROUS.
Michele Obama is the food police.As long as the food is safe people should purchase whatever they want to without government interference.She should be advocating to bring American jobs back to America so kids parents have jobs and they won't have to use the Federal food stamp program called SNAP.She should be advocating for tougher laws and sentencing for gang members as they have killed innocent children mainly in the poorer neighborhoods.And lastly she should stay off of the talk show and awards ceremony shows.It is classless of her to do otherwise.
And since it has not been established that GMO are safe, you cannot know if the food you buy is safe since GMO are not labeled.
You just shot yourself in the foot with that comment, but you did not care, you just wanted to rant about Michelle Obama.
Hilarious. Meanwhile, back in Reality-Land, President Obama has appointed Michael Taylor - Monsanto Executive & Lobbyist - to the FDA. Speeches & Pretty Words: Rhetoric the 99% Can Chock On, Results the 1% Bank On.
so?
Genetically modified crops? Plants engineered to be resistant to Roundup herbicide that contribute to septic gut disease? The most transparent administration ever.
there's no such thing as "septic gut disease"
She was not elected for anything.
@Drewmeister
Correct you are, non of the first ladies are elected. We did get the "no child left behind" law from the former first lady, and wasn't it Lady Bird Johnson that made a lot of highway sign disappear? Most first ladies have their pet projects.
But since she is married to that "uppity" POTUS, naturally the haters will be hating her for everything, even if she never did it. Oh well...
Why, does she need glasses and is too vain to wear them?
It would help if people actually read the labels and know what they mean. I always read the labels, and if I don't know what something is I google it. Did this in the store last week a woman watched me and thought I was crazy to be concerned about what was in the Food, her comment is the FDA would not allow anything harmful to be put in food.
I asked her if she had any medical conditions, she said yes! I did not ask what they were, I just commented I have a problem with salt and if it is one of the first 4 ingredients I do not buy the product. This woman was nicely dressed buying foods I can not afford to buy but when it comes to reading labels she assumes that if its on the shelf it is safe to eat, what the heck are we teaching people and our First Lady should be aware, more labeling will not solve the problem if people are not taught to read labels. This is also why I don't eat out other than the expense, I do not know what is in the food, the source of the food. Thus grow my own and raise my own chickens!
@unemployed
You bring up a very good point, a lot of people don't read the labels. However, more and more people are reading them, and not everything that is in the container is listed as being in there. But no matter what, people will still complain because it's the first lady doing this.
Like the old saying, "you can't take stupid out of the stupid." That applys to people also, and Lord knows we have a lot of them walking among us.
Is it my imagination or what,,was is it not the Demoncrat Controlled Congress in 2009 who allowed for the label changes on food items as well as an Demoncrat Appointed FDA Chief who worked hand in hand with the Industry to change the labeling requirements...So just what is the 1st Lady doing? Is she saying her own Demoncrat party sold us and our child out to the big Corporate Food Manufacturers by weakening the Label Requirements? Or this the Demoncrat Shakedown to induce these Corporations to donate more money to Obama's causes?? And now their saying that the FDA guidelines for healthy eating is making children FATTER?? LMAO on that one..I have no doubts the FDA guidelines were GHOST written by the Food Industry experts, just like Obama Care was GHOST written by the Insurance Industry to benefit themselves...Folks it is plain and simple..People ate Healthier in the30's, 40,s 50's and 60's except for their intake of fatty beef, they ate more fresh fruit and veggies back then than you do now and even grew their own. Everyone had a Vegetable Garden in the backyard. Canning home grown was very popular. One big problem was keeping it fresh for long periods and that is where frozen came into being..Now with all the Chemical Additives, Modified Food Crops, Genetically mutated plants, Hormone Fed Animals Americans are bursting at the Seams. Basically Genetically modified Seed was designed not as some think, to provide for better food, but by the Seed Industry to limit where the Farmers could go to buy their seed from by doing away with heirloom seeds and farmers saving their own seed, thereby increasing their bottom line. The majoirty of today's seeds cannot be saved and used Next year..You see this in home garden seeds from Companies like Burpee's. Folks what do Ranchers feed Cattle and Pigs to make them fatter for market?? Corn and Hormones...And what item is the base food for the majority of Snack foods??? And in the 50's and 60's people walked more, Rode more buses, had very few cars, and far superior transportation systems than we have now..What Happened..A number of things, Government Regulations, Unions, Chemical Companies, Corporate greed and Advertising. The City I grew up in had far more people to take the Bus to work and shopping than you would believe. What happened, well the Unions went on Strike it seems every other day, thereby making Public Transportation UNRELIABLE, your Bosses did not forgive you for being late because the Union went on Strike, you got your salary docked and lost pay. Next the Management of the Bus Companies to meet Union Payroll Demands raise rates, driving even more customers away from Bus ridership. Then they started cutting routes and well basically the Unions destroyed the reliability of the Public Transportation System and the Demoncrats in trade for their Votes let them...
And here I read just the opposite coming from the Demoncrats Posting here that do not seem to know the history of the label changes,,on purpose maybe?? Is this another one of Obama's "mis-information" propaganda movement items,,like his decietful business with the "Sequester" which OBAMA personally demanded that it be included in the Balance Budget Act,,and is now spending vast amounts of resources to cover up that fact?
So do we now have a very uncreditable First Lady joining her lying Husband in deceiving the Public as well?
If you have ANY money in the Stock Market I would get it out as fast as possible for it was noticed that the Unemployment Statistics were apparently way out of line, this was even mentioned on certain Stock Fund Websites as being very questionable as to it's accuracy. And if you noticed the Media prevented you from commenting on that fact on every one of their websites... Now we have the Media literally "Pushing" for you to buy Stock,,,so is the plan to create a huge buy so there will be a HUGE CRASH so that Obama can blame the Republicans for the losses due to the "Sequester" that Obama himself demanded to be included in the Balanced Budget Act?? An example of the Obama "mis-information"; The Dept. Of Edumuckation has a budget of nearly $70 billion dollars..The Sequester that Obama asked for reduces that budget by $3 Billion dollars OVER TEN YEARS..A minuscule amount per year. That is roughly $30 million a year which probably could be easily covered by turning off the lights at the Edumuckation Building every night, cutting down on self adoring and self serving Advertising, and cutting out Demoncrat created Propaganda publications for a couple of years. Have the Executives fly Business class instead of 1st Class, cut down on their "Entertainment Budgets" and basically removing their lecherous hooks out of the local school systems..You had to read of their Success in New York City did you not, where 80% of the High School Graduates cannot read at grade level upon graduation?? Yep this is your Dept. Of Edumuckation at work who entwined the New York School System with their financial puppet Strings and you see what the results are..80% can barely read,,no wonder they vote Demoncrat and need a Dictator Mayor to tell then how to live...
Friendly advice, very few people will read a post this long, I know I didn't. It indicates either cut-and-paste and/or or craziness.
While we are on the subject of food labeling, here's another suggestion:
Tell us where the stuff actually came from, not merely that it was "distributed by" so-and-so company. If it has ingredients from China, for example, you cannot determine that from the label unless the entire product was imported from there.
Cue the petty and snarky comments that Michelle Obama is trying to run a nanny state and we have the right to buy products with unknown and unlabelled toxins in them.
I am not an Obama fan, but I am pleased that the first lady is stepping up to the plate on appropriate labeling. GMO's are harmful to your health. If food is genetically altered, it could have an affect on our own genes. The outcome is unknown. Pesticides, antibiotics and hormones are all harmful. Has anyone asked why our breast cancer victims are younger and younger with a disease that is more and more aggressive? I'm for anyone who is a fan of "truth in labeling". We have no idea what we are ingesting unless the labels are honest. THEN and only THEN, can we make the choices George B is talking about.