The First Lady is on a mission to help end childhood obesity, which has been an growing problem for the past few decades. Lack of proper nutrition from whole foods with plenty of vitamins and phytonutrients, not calories, is the real problem. Well, apparently lack of calories are a problem too. A new bill authorizes a $4.5 Billion increase over 10 years for helping end childhood hunger. What? Sounds like a recipe for providing more food and calories to keep feeding the childhood obesity problem. One of the reasons that The Health & Wellness Institute recommends Juice Plus+® for children and adults is because most people aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables, plain and simple. And while Juice Plus+® contains nutrients from a variety of those foods, it is no substitute for eating those good, healthy foods. In fact, the best way to combat the obesity problem is to get kids (adults too!) to eat more fruits and vegetables. Naturally, this will cut down on the unhealthy foods that are being consumed. Here's more about the bill to help "feed" the children who are hungry, although I'm not sure who determines which children get the food and which ones don't (?).
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate Agriculture Committee on March 24 reported out the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, a bill to reauthorize the child nutrition programs with a $4.5 billion increase in funding over 10 years for school, after-school and summer meal programs.
The committee unanimously supported the bill by a bipartisan voice vote.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., noted that the bill provides the biggest increase ever in child nutrition programs and that the bill's 6-cent increase in payments to schools that improve the quality of school meals is the first increase since 1973.
"Hunger is a disease, but it is a disease we have a cure for," Lincoln said.
The bill falls short of President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal for a $10 billion increase over 10 years to meet his goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015. Lincoln, who also sits on the Senate Finance Committee, said she would ask Finance Chairman Max Baucus to try to find more offsets for child nutrition from programs under his jurisdiction.
The bill reauthorizes for five years the meal programs, the special nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC and the child and adult care feeding program. Read more...
Comments: You can see the dichotomy between hunger and obesity. Who determines which families actually need the food? There are going to be plenty of children and mothers who get the benefit of this program who are already overweight or even obese. This is one hand fighting the other. One simple action to help benefit kids' health is Juice Plus+, but here's what parents can do to help prevent childhood obesity --
It mostly boils down to being basically responsible, caring parents.
If it accomplishes nothing else, Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to lower our rates of childhood overweight and obesity has at least brought the problem onto the media center stage, making it nearly impossible to ignore or postpone dealing with. One goal, of course, is to get parents involved in maintaining or achieving a healthy weight in their children. For those parents who are looking for ways to do so, articles with helpful tips, guidelines and ploys are already popping up in the national press and on the Net. Here is a sampling of some recent offerings:
Lay down some basic rules when it comes to leisure activity and eating habits. Some parents are probably already snickering at this, given the widespread attitude that kids don’t listen, or live to break rules, or that rules just create conflicts, or it takes too much effort. The fact is, even kids who tend to cross the line want to know where the line is, and if the rules are reasonable and make sense when explained to them and enforced in a caring manner rather than an arbitrary and punitive one, they’ll usually have a real effect on the kids’ behavior. Read more...
Comments: Common sense should be the focus. A diet that consists of nutrient-dense foods like raw, whole food fruits and vegetables are the most important part of a maintaing good health and a healthy weight. If you are a parent, be sure your kids (and you!) are eating plenty of those foods, AND be sure that you avoid soft drinks, fast foods, and sitting and watching too much TV (or video games). Get out and take a walk with your family instead.
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