Photo Credit: J. Grill/getty images
Yesterday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the next step in her Let’s Move campaign. At a 3pm press briefing, she introduced David Mackay, CEO of Kellogg Company and chair of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF), a coalition of corporations that have vowed to reduce their products' caloric output over the next few years.
Since launching Let’s Move, Mrs. Obama has focused on four priorities: to advocate for better school food; to increase children’s levels of physical activity; to eliminate food deserts; and to empower parents to make healthier decisions for their families.
Today she delivered the news that HWCF pledged to cut 1 trillion calories by 2011, and 1.5 trillion by 2015. That’s a lot of calories.
The coalition will work with the Partnership for a Healthy America and will focus on three areas: increasing the number and variety of lower-calorie options available to consumers; changing recipes to reformulate existing products and reduce their caloric load; and reducing portion sizes of single-serving products.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will hold the coalition accountable for meeting the terms of this pledge and will report annually on whether calorie-reduction goals have been met.
The pledge itself represents a commitment on the part of private industry to reformulate products to address the well-documented obesity epidemic.
Of course, whether having access to more low-cal packaged goods translates into slimmer, healthier Americans still very much remains to be seen.
To see the full transcript of the First Lady’s remarks, click here.
Cheryl Sternman Rule is a widely-published food writer and the voice behind the blog 5 Second Rule.
PLUS:
- Michelle Obama's Plan to Reduce Childhood Obesity
- More Parents Dissatisfied and Seeking Change in School Lunches
- The Daily Feed: Revolutionaries Here, Revolutionaries There
- See all of Cheryl's posts here
