Editorial: Good food, exercise

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In February, first lady Michelle Obama launched the “Let’s Move!” campaign to solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. This week, the task force she formed has made some recommendations that form a good first step in hopefully turning the tide of our societal shift toward obesity. ...

Major areas include:

- Getting children a healthy start on life with good prenatal care for their parents and nutritious food along with opportunity for young children to be physically active.

- Empowering parents and caregivers with simpler, more actionable messages about nutritional choices.

- Providing healthy food in schools, including improvements in federally supported school lunches and breakfasts.

- Improving access to healthy, affordable food by eliminating “food deserts” in urban and rural America and lowering the relative prices of healthier foods.

- Getting children more physically active through quality physical education, recess and other opportunities in and after school. ...

The plan is a good start, but it is a plan that must be embraced and implemented. Other programs, such as U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar’s plan to create safe bike and hike routes to schools, need to be put in place.

Good food and plenty of exercise may sound trite, but it worked for past generations and is a plan we must embrace for the future.

Bemidji Pioneer

Tags: opinion, editorial, obama, obesity, exercise