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Michelle: $373 million in stimulus money for better vending machine foodFirst Lady Michelle Obama visited the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington Tuesday. She devoted much of her talk to "the growing threat of obesity, particularly childhood obesity" in the United States, and she touted HHS's recently-announced plan to spend $373 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on plans to, among other things, improve the healthfulness of foods in vending machines.The first lady did not discuss how such work might stimulate the economy or speed economic recovery. But she had glowing praise for the stimulus' role in fighting obesity. "Congress and the president included $1 billion for prevention and wellness programs in the Recovery Act," she told the crowd of cheering DHS workers, "and that includes funding for initiatives that will give communities the resources they need to address the obesity epidemic in their communities. This includes $373 million announced last month that would be available for communities that put together comprehensive plans to reduce obesity –- $373 million -- and that would include everything from incentivizing grocery stores to locate in underserved areas; it could include improving meals at school; to getting more healthy, affordable foods into vending machines; to creating more safe, accessible places for people to exercise and play; and a whole lot more."
School Lunch and ObesityThe newest study out of the USDA’s Economic Research Service focuses on school meals and obesity. The findings? Students who eat school lunch are just as likely to be overweight as students who do not. When you distill it down, the study shows that students who eat school lunch eat just as poorly as those who do not.
Among elementary school children, offering french fries and similar potato products in subsidized school meals more than once per week and offering dessert more than once per week were each associated with a significantly higher likelihood of obesity.
Low-income children in Philadelphia with about one dollar in pocket money managed to purchase almost 400 calories worth of snack food at convenience stores on the way to and from school, according to study published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics. About half the kids went to the stores every day, the study found. Some went twice a day.
