Healthy eating is very much on the agenda at the White House, with Michelle Obama helping out at a soup kitchen which serves fresh foods, as well as stressing the importance of locally-grown, fresh foods in her own family’s diet.
The New York Times reported that:
As [America] battles an obesity epidemic and a hard-to-break taste for oversweetened and oversalted dishes, her message is clear: Fresh, nutritious foods are not delicacies to be savored by the wealthy, but critical components of the diets of ordinary and struggling families.
A number of prominent foodies have praised Mrs. Obama for taking a clear stand about healthy eating, believing that her emphasis on fresh fruit and vegetables for the poor, and on community gardens, will encourage ordinary Americans towards a healthier diet.
American parents may also want to look to the Obamas as models for healthy family eating; Mrs. Obama told the New York Times that a couple of years ago, after their family doctor suggested some dietary adjustments, “we cut out juice boxes, sweets and processed foods.”
Mrs. Obama’s message to the nation ties in with her husband’s actions on improving food safety across America: the President selected a new head of the FDA on Saturday, public health and biological threat expert Dr. Margaret Hamburg, and announced a Cabinet-level food safety group.
Reuters explains that, if Dr. Hamburg is confirmed by the Senate:
[She] will take over an agency battered by a string of often deadly food poisoning and drug safety issues, including an ongoing outbreak of salmonella in peanut products that forced the largest food recall in U.S. history.
Obama has mentioned that the peanut crisis brought up personal worries for him; his daughter Sasha regularly eats peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. As he said, “No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch.”
Obama has blamed outdated food safety laws, and underfunding for the FDA, for the current problems.
More like this in Food Mar 18, 2009
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