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In a new interview made available Monday, first lady Michelle Obama defended her “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity program against critics who call it a government intrusion. “‘Let’s Move!’ is not about having government tell people what to do, because government doesn't have all the answers,” Mrs. Obama said in an interview with Topanga Sena, age 11, a reporter for Scholastic News in Florida. “A problem that's this big and affects so many people requires everyone to step up. So we're asking everyone to step up.” Obama has toured the country for the second anniversary of her anti-obesity initiative, leading school groups...

It’s a useful distinction to consider. A particular moral idea governs left-wing views on social and health matters, and the left’s purpose with political advocacy is to put the power of government behind that view. By examining the left’s very different policy approaches to eating and sex, we can discern the features of the morality at work.The left’s governmental approach to sex today involves, among other things, the following:1. Advertising it to children through the public schools and encouraging them to explore and participate in it.2. Basing policy on the assumption that no solution to any problem lies in individuals...

Michelle Obama's campaign to transform school foodguidelines is not your typical first lady literacy or "just say no to drugs" project. No, hers is an all-out insidious plan to use food, a basic biological need and foundation of the mother-child relationship, to nudge parents out of the way at the ground level.The first lady's deceptive initiative has closely followed the Center for American Progress' policies set out in their 2008 report Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44 th President. Led by John Podesta and funded by George Soros, CAP began working on the plan for President Obama's...

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama reacts to an errant swing from a boy as they play mini-tennis during a "Let's Move!" faith and communities physical activity at Disney World's ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida February 11, 2012. The first lady is concluding a three-day trip to mark the second anniversary of her "Let's Move" initiative. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama speaks during a "Let's Move" faith and communities event at Northland Church in Longwood, Florida February 11, 2012. The first lady is on a three-day trip to mark the two-year anniversary of her "Let's Move" initiative.

A new study of nearly 20,000 middle schoolers has found that kids who attend schools that sell junk food such as soda and doughnuts do not gain more weight than students who attend schools where that type of food isn't avai

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner sent a note of apology Thursday to Michelle Obama for referring to her “large posterior” and “big butt,” his spokesperson told POLITICO. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) was overheard talking about the first lady’s healthy food initiative — and her “large posterior” — on Wednesday in the Delta Crown lounge at Reagan National Airport, FishbowlDC reported. The representative was recounting a recent conversation he’d had at a Wisconsin Episcopal church and said loudly on the phone that Obama “lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself,” according to Fishbowl. On Thursday, Sensenbrenner said in a statement,...

Will Michelle Obama's efforts as first lady help or hurt American children and the nation in which they live? When speaking about her "Let's Move!" program to fight childhood obesity, Mrs. Obama often explains her vision of government as parent -- the Big Mother who will teach children the important things their derelict real moms and dads do not. Big Mother made an early appearance in 2009, when Mrs. Obama talked to bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services. "Their fate isn't set yet," Mrs. Obama said. "We still have everything in our power because the other beautiful...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama led toddlers at a New Orleans daycare center in calisthenics and read them a book about a mouse that eats green peas, bidding to get America's children eating better and exercising more. Obama stretched, jumped and marched in place before reading to the children who gathered in a classroom with their parents and teachers at the Royal Castle Child Development Center. The center focuses on preschoolers from families with moderate and low incomes.

WASHINGTON — Turns out, the White House did not get egged. Trick-or-treaters marched up the White House driveway on a wet, snowy Saturday, past the spider web-like gauze, the pumpkins and the costumed actors to the mansion’s north portico where President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama handed out treats, an annual tradition. “What’s this? Look at this guy,” the president said at the sight of one costumed child. “A headless man. Terrifying!” And yes, the sweets included signature boxes of White House M&Ms, signaling a temporary respite from the first lady’s healthy eating campaign. Dried fruit and White...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat—and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.”

Like millions of their fellow Americans, the First Family often gathers around the television on Sunday nights to watch ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team create livable homes for families in need. Such a fan of the show, First Lady Michelle Obama couldn't resist jumping in and helping out on the Sept. 25 season premiere. "This particular show is especially moving because it features Barbara Marshall, a Navy veteran, who despite her own struggles opened her home to serve homeless female veterans in her community," Obama tells PEOPLE. "She's an amazing example of the strength, values and service of America's...

The First Lady has scored another victory in the battle of the bulge. The CEO of Darden Restaurants, which owns eatery chains Olive Garden and Red Lobster as well as LongHorn Steakhouse and Capital Grille, said on Thursday the company will work to reduce fat and sodium by 10% over the course of the next five years and 20% over the next decade.

I was so fed up yesterday after hearing that Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants have been working with Michelle Obama on her "Let's Move" childhood obesity campaign and have decided to no longer offer french fries with children's meal menu items. I mere told them that I didn't appreciate their attempt to usurp my role as a parent, my children should be able to order fries on a night out at a restaurant if they would like to (because we eat nutritiously at home), and in the future my family will be eating at restaurants that honor my freedom...

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama has announced a plan for retailers to bring fresh fruit and vegetables to poor and underserved communities, as part of her effort to increase access to healthy foods and combat childhood obesity. At the White House Wednesday, Mrs. Obama said studies show that people who have greater access to supermarkets and fresh fruits have lower instances of obesity. The plan will see Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, and drugstore giant Walgreens, opening 1,500 stores, along with other regional retailers, in areas across the country where people have little or no access to fresh produce. The...

Stop the presses, Michelle Obama might have eaten a hamburger. The blogosphere erupted with criticism almost immediately after the Washington Post reported Monday that the first lady sat down at a newly opened Shake Shack in Washington D.C., where she ordered a ShackBurger, fries, a chocolate shake and a Diet Coke. According to the popular burger joint's website, that's a 1,556-calorie meal. (sic, actually it was 1700 calories.) Many critiqued the first lady's public display of Shake Shack love as she continues to advocate for her Let's Move! campaign, an initiative to eliminate childhood obesity. But even as the first...

The fear that a nuclear cloud could float from the shores of Japan to the shores of California has some people making a run on iodine tablets. Pharmacists across California report being flooded with requests. State and county officials spent much of Tuesday trying to keep people calm by saying that getting the pills wasn't necessary, but then the United States Surgeon General supported the idea as a worthy "precaution." U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is in the Bay Area touring a peninsula hospital. NBC Bay Area reporter Damian Trujillo asked her about the run on tablets and Dr. Benjamin...

America’s first lady is hell bent on fighting the obesity epidemic. For now it is focused on the nation’s children. She has interfered in school lunch and snack programs, and has even gotten one of the largest companies in the world, Wal-Mart, to comply with her plea to sell foods with less sugar and salt. In a Daily Caller op-ed, Orit Sklar, spokeswoman for My food. My Choice! wrote, “Now, one of the largest companies in the world is the vehicle through which all American food and health policy will flow. As Wal-Mart begins to institute the five-year plan, aimed...

New York City is pouring hundreds of thousands of federal dollars into television ads telling people they’re better off knocking back a glass of seltzer water or fat-free milk than chugging a soda — part of hundreds of millions of dollars from President Obama’s economic stimulus package devoted to getting Americans to change their behavior by eating more veggies, kicking cigarettes and picking up dumbbells. In the latest spot, part of a $870,000 stimulus-funded “Pouring on the Pounds” campaign, a narrator warns that while it may seem harmless to have “midmorning soda, a sweetened tea at lunch, a frozen coffee...

A lot of people on both sides of the aisle don't understand why anyone would oppose Michelle Obama putting on her nanny cap and keeping a calorie tally over America's kids. After all she's just trying to help prevent what she calls a threat to our national security. “A recent study put the health care cost of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion a year,” Mrs. Obama said. “This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.” If fitness is an emerging problem then surely whipping people into shape...