If you’re looking to vote for the best candidate for President of the United States, I believe she’s already in the White House. First Lady Michelle Obama. She’s brilliant, dynamic, she shines, and she understands the needs of the American people. And more gigantic than that, she believes in youth of the future, that if given the right information, they hold in their hand change for their own lives and generations to come.
She chose as her platform the timely subject of changing America’s diet to more fresh fruits and vegetables. AMEN! As a country we’re facing some really serious challenges. One in three Americans will have diabetes in their life time if we don’t change course. As a diet related illness, it will depend on the choices we make. This will impact the economy and our health care system as well as our quality of life.
Michelle Obama is a hands on leader, teaching the nation by doing, with no empty promises. Without hesitation, she dug up the lawn at the White House and planted a vegetable patch, setting a great example for the country. She organized help for the veggie garden from local school students who assisted with the planting and caring for the now famous urban plot, making learning fun! And who wouldn’t be glad to pull weeds to spend an afternoon with her.
A good leader hires a great team. Ms. Obama had the genius to hire 31 year old Sam Kass as the First Family’s personal chef at the White House and an important player in ‘Let’s Move’, her healthy food initiative and campaign against childhood obesity. When he’s not making vegetable dishes for Sasha and Malia from the garden, he travels the country to promote Michelle’s message, helping establish policies that affect what millions of school kids consume each day. More fresh fruits and vegetables! He was quoted as saying “Obesity may be our nation’s greatest national security threat.” Rock on!
This is the painful truth. If we don’t turn this boat around, young people look to inherit the Standard American Diet (also known as SAD) that is picking us off in large numbers. One in ten infants and toddlers are dangerously heavy, and one in three American kids are now overweight or obese. If the trend continues the projections are this number will suffer from Type-2 Diabetes in their life time.
This is bad news.
Yet the good news is all we have to do is add fresh fruits and vegetables to our diet. Make it fun for our kids so that they will welcome the change.
Diet change is all about the optimism. I remain extremely hopeful when I hear stories like the one about nine year old Sam Wohabe. He was one of fifty-four children ages 8-10 selected from more than 1200 entries for the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, traveling to Washington D.C. for a kid’s ‘State Dinner’ hosted by my gal Michelle Obama. What was on the plate that won him first prize? ‘Kale Chips’ and ‘Stuffed Pepper’. Sam also spear headed an effort to turn the roof top of his upper East Side Co-op into a veggie garden. This young guy runs up on the elevator to clip herbs to add to his dishes. Is that not so super cute. You can’t help being excited and hopeful about that.
Feb. 9, 2012 marked the White House initiative’s second anniversary at an event with 14,000 kids dancing and cheering for fresh fruits and vegetables. Hundreds of health professionals from the public and private sector attended. The children’s voice’s were heard. “If you love us stop feeding us junk!” Fresh fruits and vegetables are back in style and not a moment too soon.
We are ‘On Board’ at Diet For Living Center. We have dedicated our life to helping households learn new and exciting ways to prepare fresh fruits and vegetables. Raw crackers, raw berry jams, fresh raw almond milk and raw cacao treats are just to name a few…….We have our Rawfood MeetUp, a monthly potluck, on August 26th at 5 PM. It’s a great time to see what’s new in the world of fresh fruits and vegetables. Join us. Everyone’s welcome.
Let’s turn this boat around! Future generations depend on us