Let's Move She Said-And We Have

From Ezekiel J. Emanuel at the Opinionator from the New York Times

During the first spring of the Obama presidency, the First Lady broke ground on a White House vegetable garden. Then, in February 2010, she announced the Let’s Move initiative, a campaign to change the way America’s children eat and exercise, with the goal of ending childhood obesity in a generation.

In the years since, what has Michelle Obama’s work accomplished, besides (and I can say this from experience) the harvesting of some delicious lettuce, green beans and honey?

The answer is: a lot. One of the most important results has been increasing public awareness of the importance of obesity. In 2008, over two-thirds of adults and a third of adolescents and children in the United States were obese or overweight. Although most Americans already saw obesity as a major problem, a majority opposed increasing federal spending to combat it. This attitude has begun to change. By 2011, a Pew survey found that most Americans believe the government should play a significant role in reducing obesity among children. Today, 80 percent of Americans acknowledge that childhood obesity is a serious problem.

Mrs. Obama’s campaign has also led to improvements in the access to and content of school meals — which are where many children get the bulk of their calories and nutrition. In late 2010, the lame-duck Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which, for the first time in 30 years, increased funding for school breakfasts and lunches above the inflation rate. The act also gives the Agriculture Department authority to set health standards for all foods sold on school property — including those in vending machines. Best of all, it reduced government paperwork to establish eligibility for free or reduced-price school meals, ensuring that tens of thousands more children will get healthy food they need.

In conjunction with the Let’s Move campaign, three of the largest food service companies that operate school cafeterias — Sodexo, Aramark and Chartwells — committed to meeting recommended levels of fat, sugar and whole grains in the next 5 years and doubling the fruits and vegetables they serve over the next 10. Then, just last month, after a long struggle that included a fight over whether pizza sauce should count as a serving of vegetables (the final verdict was that it does), federal regulations upgraded the quality of food in the school meals to ensure they contain more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and less sodium and saturated fat.

There has also been important progress in the private sector. Walmart, Walgreens, Supervalu and other smaller grocers have promised to build or expand 1,500 stores that sell fresh fruits and vegetables in communities without access to healthy food. The FreshWorks Fund, a team of grocery industry groups, banks and health care organizations, committed $200 million to eliminating these so-called “food deserts” in California, bringing access to nutritious groceries to millions.

Even more impressive, Walmart announced that, by 2015, it would remove all trans fats and reduce salt and added sugars by 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, from thousands of packaged foods it sells. We know that when Walmart drops salt by 25 percent, everyone will drop salt by 25 percent, because when Walmart demands suppliers change how they make their products, it drives the whole marketplace. Walmart has also committed to making healthier foods more affordable.

In the restaurant world, Darden, which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster, among others, has committed to reducing total calories and salt across its menus, and is offering vegetables, fruit and milk as the default side dishes and drink for every kid’s meal.

And there are plenty of other achievements: the Agriculture Department redesigned the cluttered food pyramid into an easier-to-follow circular symbol called MyPlate; the United States Tennis Association is building or refurbishing 3,000 tennis courts; 1,000 salad bars have been donated to schools; and, with the health care reform law, chain restaurants are posting calorie counts on their menus.

It has been only two years since Let’s Move began, and we can’t know yet if there has been any reduction in childhood obesity rates. After all, it took nearly 50 years to convert the country into a fat blob; it will take time to return to a slim fit. But it is possible.

Most powerful of all, Mrs. Obama’s campaign has already begun to change the way the food sector — producers, restaurants and grocery stores — approaches its youngest customers. With rising public awareness of the importance of good nutrition, companies are changing their business models, incorporating nutrition when they design and develop cereals, snacks, menus or school meals. While not all food companies have changed yet, the market is beginning to require them to come up with healthier products. At this rate, I believe we’ll start seeing childhood obesity rates declining after a few more harvests of the White House garden.