Why can’t Michelle Obama plant flowers like Lady Bird? Or advocate reading? Bead making?
But no, the First Lady’s pet peeve is fat kids and obviously in her warped view there is no personal responsibility – all blame rests on businesses that manufacture and distribute sugary treats – so she uses her copious free time to berate them.
First lady Michelle Obama had tough words for grocery manufacturers Tuesday, telling them to “step it up” in their efforts to provide healthier foods to children and curb obesity.
At a conference at Washington’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, Obama talked about her own efforts on the childhood obesity front, explaining that her goal was to “finally make this national public health threat a national priority.”
“I’m here today to urge all of you to move faster and to go farther, because the truth is we don’t have a moment to waste,” she said in a 20-minute address. “So, we need you all to step it up.”
“Let’s move to give parents the information they need to make better decisions for their kids,” she said in her statistics-laden speech. “Let’s move to get healthier food into our schools. Let’s move to get more supermarkets into underserved areas so that all Americans have access to fresh, nutritious foods.”
Officials from the Grocery Manufacturers Association – 300 food, beverage and consumer product companies, including McDonald’s, General Mills, Nestle, Coca-Cola and Del Monte – met with Obama before her speech.
About a dozen of the member organizations have agreed to tougher standards on marketing food to children. But Obama asked for more.
“We need you not just to tweak around the edges, but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children,” she said. “That starts with revamping, or ramping up, your efforts to reformulate your products, particularly those aimed at kids, so that they have less fat, salt, and sugar and more of the nutrients that our kids need.”
“I want to challenge each and every one of you to go back to your companies, take a look at your marketing budgets and ask some questions,” she went on. “For example, when you put money into reformulating a product to make it healthier, do you then invest enough in marketing that product to kids and parents? Or is most of the marketing budget still going to the less healthy versions?”
“Or we’ll tax your shit into obscurity because it’s ‘bad’ for us, just like we did for cigarettes”. Isn’t that what she really means?
According to this speech, parents are idiots and do not posses the ability to think for themselves or read labels. Schools serve shit. And there aren’t enough grocery stores. ALL of which are untrue.
I am offended, both by her presumptions and war on free enterprise.
speaking of sin nazis, do you have Rita’s Italian ice in your area? They have free ice on Saturday for all customers!
http://ritasice.fbmta.com/a/1/32217565288/32212280778/default.aspx
Nah, that’s too healthy. I’m gonna feed my kid doritos before having her wash it down with sugar.
I’ve never seen them in the area, but just found one 2 towns over. Not driving over there for a free ice, but it was a nice thought.
sure wish these Nazis would mind their own damn business. Like parents don’t know that apples and carrots are healthier than burgers and fries. We don’t need to be told – we freaking know.
Have you ever spent any time thinking about how many of the freedoms we had when we were growing up are now gone? It can be quite saddening – and it is going to get much much worse.
Worse? Ugh.
Good grief…what the heck am I doing with yogurt in the fridge, large salads with grilled chicken for dinner, baked potatoes, grilled chicken, broiled tilapia being offered. Heaven forbid that there is a cup with some candy and honey straws available for the kid to enjoy, right next to the bowl of apples and bananas (and she and DH fight over the fruit!). That we make sandwiches with 100% whole wheat bread, lean turkey and *gasp* barbecue potato chips.
I should hang my head in shame and report to the town center for flogging.
And Mrs Bambi…this is for you and your opinions!
I’m not one who advocates or even supports the ridiculous notion of suing juice companies, candy manufacturers, chip manufacturers, junk food vendors, fast food companies and restaurants for having high calorie fare. Last time I looked around, there wasn’t anyone standing behind these people with a loaded weapon to everyone’s head and telling them they must eat it!
Give me a break. When these frivilous lawsuits are presented and thought up by the pointed heads in Washington, they should all be flogged soundly with 4×6′s. :pray:
Honey straws?! It’s the leg irons for you, missy!
The idiocy never ends, does it??
About the only thing I may agree with is the campaign to get sugary and soft drink machines out of our public schools. Our kids don’t need any more junk pushed in their faces, they’re hopped up enough on sugar and caffeine as it is.
As far as the rest?
The REAL problem is you cut out recess and gym, therefore depriving our kids of outdoor time and exercise, so you can shove those stupid standardized tests down their throats, which only benefit the school districts and not the individual students AT ALL (starting to sound like a broken record). THAT’s the real problem, not the food they’re eating. So keep your fat beak out of our family lives, Michelle O-Hole, and let US decide as parents what we will and won’t feed our kids. And give them back their recess.
We didn’t have coke machines back in the ‘olden’ days and we got through school just fine. So, I agree, take ‘em out. Kids with money will usually spend it on coke before nutritious food.
Or was that just YsD?
I know that everytime I go into the grocery store they point a gun at my head and say “candy and sweets for you only, if we catch you buying and fruit or veggies we will tie you up and torture you”
Of course with some of those stock boys I wouldn’t mind the tieing and torturing bit …. :hotflash:
My poor sister, she taught my niece how to eat right. Niece doesn’t care for candy, fruit is her crack. And I swear to god this happened because I was standing right there, someone in my family told my sister it’s wrong that she “won’t let” my niece eat candy because she (my niece) will only grow up to be some sort of addict because she “wasn’t allowed” candy in her youth. That coming from someone who’s kids meal consisted of m&m’s, chips/dip, cake/ice cream and who’s been told her kid needs to lose weight because she is overweight (and really, the kid is overweight).
That’s one of the most asinine things I’ve ever heard!!
Only because she needs someone to blame for her own kids being little fat asses.
Are they really? I’ve never paid attention. Just thought she had latched onto this idea because of some past slight… I see a schoolyard… little Michelle… children are taunting her…. paging Dr. Freud!
Malaria and Syphilis need to go on the hopy-changy diet:
Obama gets elected, your business goes to shit and you don’t have enough for food anymore.
Well, now you’re just speaking from personal experience…
Take a look at the school lunch/school breakfast, school supper, school bedtime snacks for a good part of the reason so many kids are fat. Add that kids aren’t out burning off calories like we did back in the day.
I dunno… we ate really well when I was growing up… but I did get a ton of exercise.
Got rid of my baby fat the way normal girls do; I became anorexic. What the hell is Michelle trying to do, fix the system?
Absolutely Peter! When Daisy started school and the school cafeteria menu came home, I looked it over, looked at DH and said, “Sodium. Sodium. Sodium. Fat. Sodium. More sodium. Oooh and fat and sodium.” which is why Daisy’s lunch was made for everyday by me. It contained protein, fruit, dairy, small amount of complex carb and a snack consisting of generally fruit gummies (her fav) but were made with 100% fruit juice (no corn syrup). How could I have not loved my child enough to let them buy cheap food at school?! What am I thinking having her ride her bike frequently? Swimming twice a week? Playground with us twice a week and generally we ride our bikes TO THE playground and ride the trailes BEFORE we play on the playground and then *gasp* ride our bikes back home (and it’s about 4 miles one way from our house).
Sheesh, I should hang my head in shame and turn myself in for some 12 step program. I’ll start feeding her donuts and coke tomorrow for breakfast! That’ll fix it.
I ate school lunches, but of course that was 100 years ago…
Junk food is and always was junk food.
The ONLY thing wrong now is that personal accountability is now a rare trait, that the government seems to encourage against and reward people for its disappearance.
Give a kid an apple, turn off the TV and tell them to take a walk. Better yet, do it with them!
Absolutely, Kim! :thumbs:
>>>>”and how you market those products to our children”
Translation: “Change your entire business model because we brainiacs in the government believe parents are too stooopid and weak to say “no” to their children once they’ve been exposed to a television commercial for Trix. We’ll take care of the little darlings if their parents won’t.”
Oh, and by the way? Physician, heal thyself. If I were Moochelle, I’d invest in a good ol’ fashioned, industrial strength girdle before I went around berating people for being fat.
“According to this speech, parents are idiots and do not posses the ability to think for themselves or read labels”
The contempt is palpable. It’s not just parents who are thought of as idiots. It’s anyone with a view that deviates from far leftist norms. These people need to be humbled.
>>>>And there aren’t enough grocery stores.
She’s talking about “food deserts” where there are only convenience type stores that sell food.
These “deserts” are located in bad sections of urban areas, like the South side of Chicago. And, the “do-gooders” and “community organizers” want you to believe it is because chains just don’t want to operate in poor areas.
But, it’s not because businesses don’t *want* to operate in those areas. The reason “deserts” exist is because the crime in these ghettos have run them out… they have been robbed and shoplifted to the point that closing the store is more profitable for the chain than leaving it open.
What about more jobs for people so they buy the apples and yogurt instead of the 10 for $10 boxes of sugar laden granola bars and other snacks for their kids the grocery stores put on sale? Have you ever noticed the price discrepancy? Why is it that to eat healthier my grocery bill has increased by half?
There are certain foods where the manufacturers DO need to take more responsibility because the average person just does not read labels. The yogurt they market to kids is one. How many parents buy it thinking “It’s yogurt. It’s good for them,” when in reality it’s loaded with sugar. I also recently let my son try a new yogurt product marketed to kids, but there are no healthy bacteria cultures listed in the ingredients like other yogurt products. Wouldn’t that make it fruit pudding?
Agreed Amanda!
If you buy healthy, whole foods or even :shock: ORGANIC, expect your pocketbook to be depleted by half – if you’re lucky. We make expeditions to the Farmers Markets and have great fun looking at everything and then making some purchases. The best dinners we have is when I cook up all that fresh good food that same night. (Grilled chicken with fresh mushrooms, blanched crisp green beans, squash, zucchini, carrots all minced and mixed in with brown rice (I call it confetti rice) and strawberries for dessert. It was pure heaven!)
I’m not going to sit here and say the things they target to kids are the best for them. But in small doses, yes, they’re fine. That’s why I buy the little kids size yogurts for Kiddo’s lunch. They’ve got about 3 spoonfuls to them, but it’s a fun treat that is a positive.
Do I take advantage of the sugar cereal when it’s on sale, absolutely. We’ve got Fruit Loops and Corn Pops at the house right now. But when we eat them, it’s Cheerios, Kix or Corn Flakes as the majority and 1/4-1/3 cup of the sugar cereal mixed in with it. So you don’t need to add sugar and you feel like your getting something extra.
But the bottom line is true. Washington thinks we’re ALL too dumb to know how to raise our kids, feed our keeps, get our kids moving and have them do well in school in life. While that may be true for some, it does not apply to me and many of the people I know. :thumbs:
I’m sorry, but I just don’t want a government making my decisions for me or telling businesses how to run and what to sell and how.
Basically, I want America back.
Why can’t she just get up there and tell parents that their kids are fat because they’re feeding them CRAP and not teaching them proper nutrition or exercise habits????
WHY WHY WHY???
Why can’t nutrition be a required class in school? Why is gym cut back to 3 days a week with NO CALISTHENICS (at our school) then we gape as 12 year olds with beer guts waddle around and jiggle – then wear pants that can’t go up over their lumps? TWELVE YEARS OLD??
OMG Parents today are the ones who need to have nutrition courses made available to them. They need to give a shit. Kids would be better off (since parents don’t give a shit) to learn it at school so that they could make better choices since apparently, parents seem to think that it’s the government/school’s job to raise their children.
And also, someone needs to tell Mrs. Chipmunk FrObama that Jamie Oliver beat her to the punch – it’s not all about the words you preach, it’s the ACTION YOU TAKE!
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution
WooHOO!! Go, Leanne! :worship:
Because Nobama and Mrs Nobama think that its the Demo(n)cratics jobs to tell us what we do and don’t need. What we need to have, what we don’t need to have. How we’re supposed to live our lives, what insurance we want, what foods we do and don’t want and how we are supposed to live our lives…according to the demo(n)cratic ideology which brought them to the obvious success that they’ve achieved. We’re supposed to want what they want and what they have…they are the light in the dark, showing us the way.
Only one problem people…it’s a train. And when it hits you, you’re gonna be really really sorry you followed the false prophet. And as it says in the Bible (Jer 14:14-16):
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
This is a control issue – control the food, control the energy of the up rising – less sugar less endurance.
Mike: “This is a control issue…”
It is. Liberals want to remake America according to their image of what it should be. The will of the people means nothing to them as the health care bills show.
BTW, exempting insurance companies from antitrust provisions so that each state could regulate them separately is largely (but not completely) to blame for the skyrocketing price of health care. There are over 1,000 providers of health insurance in the USA but only a small fraction can be found operating in any particular state. Limit the supply and prices rise. Economics 101.
What’s ridiculous is that the MAJORITY of Americans want to be controlled. They think government SHOULD be in charge of this kind of stuff. They welcome this interference, and applaud the FrObamas for being “leaders”!!
Unfortunately, folks, we’re the minority, now. :(
I can’t bring myself to believe that, Leanne. That would be…
I wonder if because the divorce rate is so high, if what we really have is widespread abandonment issues? Maybe if you really dig down to the heart of the issue, if Mom’s didn’t have to go back to work to support the family, kids wouldn’t have grown up craving the need to have SOMEONE take care of them. Hence the whole Mommy Daddy Obama thing. kwim?
I know exactly what you mean. And I believe you’re right.
How frighteningly accurate that sounds.
I know…