Let's Move! ...to Prevent Childhood Obesity

It's no surprise that childhood obesity is drawing more public attention than ever before. Evidence is growing on the ill-effects and complicated origins of childhood obesity, making inaction impossible both for public health programs and politicians.

We can prevent childhood obesity. And that's precisely what the White House initiative, Let's Move!, intends to do.
The four main components of Let's Move! are:

1. Giving parents the support they need to make healthier choices for their families,
2. Providing healthier food in schools,
3. Helping kids be more physically active, and
4. Making healthy, affordable food available in every part of the country.

The President has issued a memorandum to establish a task force on childhood obesity, which coordinates across multiple sectors (health, education, economics, agriculture) to create a plan that tackles the four components listed above.

An "Interagency Action Plan" must be developed and submitted to President Obama within 90 days (effective February 9th) that lays out a coordinated, multi-sectoral strategy to achieve the four objectives; identifies benchmarks for success; and develops appropriate policy, legislative, and budget proposals to combat childhood obesity.

That means that by Monday, May 1, 2010 we should have a detailed plan of how our government plans to tackle childhood obesity and reverse the trends that will likely cripple this nation and forever impact future generations.