Michelle Obama Quotes

Health messages are simply overwhelmed, in volume and in effectiveness, by junk-food ads that often deploy celebrities or cartoon characters to great effect. We may know that eating fruits and vegetables is good for us, but the preponderance of the signals we get - and especially the signals children get - push us in the direction of junk food.

Since acquiring major interests in Dole Food Company 28 years ago, educating the public on proper diet has constituted the agenda of the Dole Nutrition Institute.

I believe that parents need to make nutrition education a priority in their home environment. It's crucial for good health and longevity to instill in your children sound eating habits from an early age.

To amplify our efforts, USDA is joining with First Lady Michelle Obama in aggressively promoting the 'Let's Move' campaign, which will combat the epidemic of childhood obesity through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, and mobilizes public and private sector resources.

I never count calories, but I eat so well.

We must pay greater attention to keeping our bodies and minds healthy and able to heal. Yet we are making it difficult for our defences to work. We allow things to be sold that should not be called food. Many have no nutritive value and lead to obesity, salt imbalance, and allergies.

My experience as a school nurse taught me that we need to make a concerted effort, all of us, to increase physical fitness activity among our children and to encourage all Americans to adopt a healthier diet that includes fruits and vegetables, but there is more.

Childhood obesity is best tackled at home through improved parental involvement, increased physical exercise, better diet and restraint from eating.

I normally don't eat junk food.

There's no reason that America should be No. 1 in obesity; we have the greatest country in the world.

It's bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children's health than the pediatrician.

But in terms of the code by which we go to market - it's not telling kids to supersize, we're not selling them, generally, products, in the advertising we do to them.

I'm on a health kick! I'm drawn to cheeseburgers, so I've got to just try and keep it on an even keel.

Even if we give parents all the information they need and we improve school meals and build brand new supermarkets on every corner, none of that matters if when families step into a restaurant, they can't make a healthy choice.

As I get older every year, I'm eating better. As a kid, who can turn down chips and candy? But I'm getting better.

Fixing obesity is going to require a change in our modern relationship with food. I'm hopeful that we begin to see a turnaround in this childhood obesity epidemic.

But parents and schools have their priorities; making sure our kids eat right because research shows a clear connection between nutrition and student performance in school.

I was thin in high school and then I gained weight. I went to a nutritionist. I learned for the first time about what things are healthy to eat, basically.

I do practice what I preach when it comes to nutrition.

I'm trying to cut down a little on eating, on sodium, keep my blood pressure down, which is tough. Because I love food! I do, but it's unfair how everything that's bad for you tastes so good, and all the good stuff, veggies and green things, doesn't match up.

The best way to lose weight is to close your mouth - something very difficult for a politician. Or watch your food - just watch it, don't eat it.

There shouldn't be an announcement that divides our food between what tastes good and what is good for us.

I have to make sure I exercise and that the ingredients that go into my body are completely organic.

So, when it comes to eating healthy, it's just doing the right thing. And it's not something you have to do 365 days a year, but I think it's something you have to do 25 days a month. Let's put it that way.

And I believe that the best buy in public health today must be a combination of regular physical exercise and a healthy diet.