America is one of the only countries that has such a high rate of obesity amongst their children and adults. While many people can blame the amount of fast food restaurants out there or inadequate nutrition the fact still remains that over half of America fits into the overweight category. In order to combat this growing amount of people who fit into the category the United States Department of Health and Human Services has developed a program known as the Let’s Move program.
The Let’s Move campaign is an initiative to encourage children of all ages to engage in healthier practices. The program was started by the First Lady Michelle Obama who is working hard to combat childhood obesity and allow children to grow up to be adults who are at a health weight. It is believed that by changing the way children understand and view food and exercise it could really change their behaviors.
The program focuses on a number of different factors. Here are some of the focuses of the Let’s Move campaign.
Healthier School Lunches. Many children all across America are dependent upon school lunches for their food. Many schools do not provide health alternatives for these lunches. The Let’s Move campaign is trying to allow schools to get funding so that healthy foods are being served to children.
Healthy Eating Education. One of the other factor’s of the Let’s Move campaign is to provide students all over America with the education about the food choices that they are making. They teach children what is healthy, how to read labels and other factors that can help combat childhood obesity.
Physical Movement. The Let’s Move campaign also focuses on having children know how important physical activity is to their health. It tries to encourage children to engage in at least 60 minutes of some type of physical activity from cardio, muscle strengthening or bone strengthening exercises.