Reminds me of the “progress” reports on Stalin’s five-year plans.
“Thanks to these efforts… the national childhood obesity rate has leveled off, and even declined in some cities and states.”
6 thoughts on “White House Credits ‘Let’s Move’ for Halting and Reversing Childhood Obesity Trend”
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Orthopedists are being flown in to treat an epidemic of broken arms from all the self-congratulations being tossed around.
Darn. I was just about to say we can stop limiting soda size and bring back the Twinkie and you burst my bubble with the “new programs and regulations”. I foolishly thought “Let’s Move” was about actual physical exercise. Obviously not. 🙂
A White House press release was issued about Michelle’s media tour to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Let’s Move. Hobnobbing with TV personalities like Jimmy Fallon, Dr. Oz and Rachael Ray ensures media coverage, but it is only marketing. As the Weekly Standard noted, the press release provided no evidence to support the White House’s claim that its childhood obesity initiatives have had any effect on children’s body size or health.
That’s because there is no evidence. The White House press release links to the Let’s Move’s website, which defines “success” by the number of new programs, regulations and money that that they’ve collected to force schools, towns and companies to comply with their federal standards for what they believe is “healthy” food choices and exercise for children.
The fact of the matter is that every childhood obesity intervention program to date has failed to show lasting improvements in children’s diets, activity levels, health outcomes or in reducing obesity. This fact has been proven time and again, including the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Institutes of Medicine which examined 6,900 studies and abstracts and found no quality evidence to support childhood obesity interventions. Even the CDC’s own Comprehensive School Nutrition Policy Initiative was supposed to have provided the evidence for government schools’ wellness programs and failed on all counts.
But it was all based on a fabricated crisis and staticulations. There is no epidemic of childhood obesity and there never was. Even by the CDC’s own data, there were no significant increases in the numbers of children considered “overweight” since 1999-2000 — a fact known long before the government declared a “war on obesity” — and children are healthier and expected to live longer than at any other time in our history. (Childhood obesity is defined by BMI cutoffs, measurements of height and weight.) Nor is there any credible evidence to support popular beliefs being marketed to the public that today’s children are less physically active or that their diets are less healthy.
Cries of a childhood obesity epidemic has led to massive new programs and government expenditures — the CDC’s budget for “health eating” and physical activity programs alone, grew 2000% just between 1999 and 2005 and are exponentially still larger today — and an overwhelming slew of special interests profiting on this agenda.
This is all about expanding control over people’s lives and about making money and gaining power and prestige… not helping children.
Did His Highness walk the course with Tiger last weekend?
Why is it the first thing that comes to my mind about this is BS!
Heh, I wonder if NASA is going to be out front again… I was utterly amazed aat the number of “porkers” are at Mission Control Center – Houston on NASA TV. Must be an ADA issue with obese adults.