This past week, Michelle Obama gathered 100 food industry representatives, academic experts and public-health advocates for a “summit” at the White House to discuss junk food marketing to children. The event included public remarks by the first lady, followed by a closed-door discussion among attendees, ostensibly to come up with some solutions. Her speech was…
Poor Dietary Habits Killing More Than Smoking
More exercise is not cutting into the nation’s high obesity levels, and unwise diets are killing more people than about anything else—including smoking, drinking and drug use. Those are among the findings of a new study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. The independent research center rolled…
Letter From The Editor: First Lady of the United States
Why am I not surprised with the snarky comments made around the anniversary of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign? It was entirely predictable that if Mrs. Obama celebrated any success in her campaign, the classless and clueless critics would go for their knives. That’s exactly what has happened. 
On this third anniversary of “Let’s Move,”…
LFTB-maker Met With White House Staff in 2011
About a year before Lean Finely Textured Beef, or pink slime, would garner national attention — and outrage among consumers on social media — the product’s maker, Beef Product Inc, paid a visit to the White House. According to visitor logs released by the Obama administration last month, BPI’s CEO Eldon Roth, the company’s lead…
Sorry Mrs. O, But Jumping Jacks Won't Cut It
At a recent summit on childhood obesity, the first lady announced a shift in her well-known Let’s Move campaign — away from food reform and toward an increased focus on exercise. Instead of “forcing [children] to eat their vegetables,” she told her audience, “it’s getting them to go out there and have fun.”
Yes, you…
A White House Chef Defends the First Lady
Marion Nestle, the author of Food Politics, recently got a reminder that food is indeed political, right up to the nation’s highest office. On November 30, the first lady made a speech in which she announced that her Let’s Move campaign (on childhood obesity) would have a renewed focus on physical fitness, to combat …
'Porcupine Sliders' Win School Lunch Contest
Porcupine Sliders, turkey burgers jazzed up with brown rice, spinach, celery, garlic spices and dried cranberries, captured the grand prize in First Lady Michelle Obama’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition.
The Porcupine Sliders were served up by the team from Intermediate District 287, South Education Center Alternative in Richfield, Minn. at the national cook-off held …
Test Kitchen: Looking for a School Lunch Winner
Last weekend, I cooked dinner using entries from the Recipes for Healthy Kids competition, the joint venture by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to improve school meals with more nutritious and kid-appealing food.
The contest invited schools around the nation to submit entries in three categories: whole …
USDA Intros Online Tool for Locating Food Deserts
A new Internet-based mapping tool pinpoints the location of what the U.S. government calls “food deserts.”
The online Food Desert Locator, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS), was unveiled Monday.
Simply put, food deserts are areas where people have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.
Under the …
Helping Kids Opt for Healthy Food at School
Food Safety News talks with leaders of some of the nation’s top school nutrition programs to find out what motivates kids to choose healthy food at the cafeteria.
You can lead a child to cauliflower, but can you make him eat it? Getting kids to choose wholesome foods is becoming increasingly important as schools across…