Well done Michelle Obama. I commend her “Let’s Move” public awareness campaign to help stem the tide of childhood obesity in the US, launched on February 9th and outlined in the NZ Herald.
A critical success factor is that this campaign appears to stem from Michelle’s own personal family learnings and experience prior to entering the White House. And now that she’s mother of the nation it makes sense to bring these learnings to her new, wider family. It’s a PR dream.
The four campaign pillars are: helping parents make better food choices, serving healthier food in school vending machines and lunch lines, making healthy food more available and affordable, and encouraging children to exercise more.
Yes, it is ambitious – but what I like is that it’s multifaceted – like obesity itself. The true causes of obesity in a population are highly complex, because they vary so much from person to person, so no single approach will ever be successful. What’s needed for prevention is a multifaceted approach across the population, to allow for this individual variation.
Within “Let’s Move” there are specific plans to work with the food industry on developing easily understood food labels, encouraging doctors to better identify and work with those children at risk, serving healthier food in schools, offering tax breaks to improve access to healthier food in specific areas, consumer education programmes providing tips and resources, and encouraging at least 60 minutes of exercise daily.
All really good common sense stuff, that’s pulled together as one campaign with one clear goal, by a powerful, talented and nurturing figurehead. As discussed on Rebecca Scritchfield’s US healthcare blog, recognition of the fact that governments alone will not solve the challenge of obesity is another critical success factor of Let’s Move. Surely it’s the sort of approach our own government should be taking? Why then abolish the progress made on making school food here healthier? Why take the view that education on its own doesn’t work, so stop marketing and producing healthy eating education and resources? Why stop programmes already working to improve access to healthier foods in communities? Why not commend food companies for the progress they’ve already voluntarily made (for example labelling foods with %DI information to help consumers plan their food and beverage intake)?
Our government seems to be focusing on exercise as a silver bullet. What do you think? Who would our Let’s Move figurehead be? Would people believe this of Bronagh?
(PS – these questions aren’t rhetorical. I’d really like to hear your views!)
