“The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake.”Â
~ First Lady Michelle Obama at the Let’s Move! launch on February 9, 2010
Frank Bruni was a fat kid. He was also the New York Times food critic from 2004-2009 and the best-selling author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. In his deeply moving memoir, he explains the problems and perils of being fat and the emotional struggle food caused him as a child and an adult. He said he wanted to write his memoir to show  “what food could do to trip people up.”
Apparently food can do a lot to trip you up. Being obese can have a devastating impact on life. A child born in this century has a one in three chance of developing diabetes and an alarmingly high percentage will suffer obesity-related conditions such as cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and heart disease. Those numbers go up dramatically in the Hispanic and African-American communities: Right now 40 percent of these children are overweight or obese.
With these statistics, is it any wonder that Michelle Obama would introduce Let’s Move to combat childhood obesity?