@ Caryn --- if you want to stuff your daughter with cookies, hotdogs,etc., that's your business. Let her enjoy all the foods that God has so richly blessed us with. However, don't blame Mrs. Obama because you and/or your daughter have pangs of guilt after going on a high calorie binge. It sounds to me like you have a food addiction and Mrs. Obama's face on the front cover of your magazine touting the "Let's Move" Campaign struck a chord.

I think this article would have benefited from a more precise definition of the terms "overweight" and "obese", which are precise medical terms and refer to different conditions. It is not clear from the article whether or not the author herself understands the difference. I also wish the author would clarify her reasons for feeling "chilled" by the thought of eliminating childhood obesity. Is she chilled by the thought of eliminating polio? Or fetal alcohol syndrome? Or any other preventable condition that robs a child of the ability to live a normal life? Of course we feel sorry for these children - sorry enough that we would be glad to see a generation of children who did not have to suffer in that way. Eliminating childhood obesity does not mean making all children look the same; it means no more 300-lb ten year olds who, before they even reach Jr. High, are already suffering from bone deformities, type 2 diabetes, and heart problems.

I am the mother of two daughters and when my oldest was 7, she came home claiming she was fat. They were all putting themselves on diets. But I didn't blame obesity programs. Why do you think 7 year olds discuss this things? Our children pick up and model this behavior from US, not Michelle Obama! We, as women, whether we are at Bible study or the PTA, are guilty of being obsessed with our appearances and the appearances of other women. I had to check myself and realize that every time I made a disparaging remark about my own weight, someone else's weight, and what was on my plate or someone else's plate that my daughters would hear these things and internalize them. When I attended a church banquet (another reason why church folk are so fat--butter cakes disguised as "blessings") a few weeks back, a member loudly reminded me (and several others seated at my table) about my weight. Yes food is a gift from God, but we are also to eat food as fuel so that we can do Kingdom work. The body is a temple where the Holy Spirit resides. We can't be effective kingdom builders for Christ if we don't take care of ourselves.

Alas, CT! What are you coming to? I used to think of your magazine as "The magazine for Christians who like to think." Now I find myself coming to this blog simply to shake my head with grief :( Once can be aware of healthy food choices without becoming obsessed. We can teach our children to love and enjoy food, and eat in moderation, and move and be healthy without becoming exercise fanatics. Fat people are not bad. Thin people are not good. We want our children to be healthy. I think we can all agree on this. I'm sure Michelle Obama would as well. Just as once can teach their children to love Jesus without becoming a raging religious zealot, one can teach their children healthy attitudes without making them unhealthy.

If the "Let's Move" campaign was all about touting how good and tasty it is to eat good-for-you food, and how your body can get stronger and healthier by all kinds of fun exercise, I'm not sure I would be so worried about it. If it were only targeted at making healthy food and extracurricular activities more affordable, I would be 100% behind it. But where the explicit purpose is to eliminate childhood obesity within a generation, there are two very, very problematic things that happen: 1) It is weight-focused, not health-focused 2) It is targeted at children who are smart enough to understand that "ZOMG Don't get fat!" is really what's being said. Obesity *can* be the result of poor diet and exercise, but it can also be the result of genetics, of chronic illness, glandular disorders, or in the case of children, the body storing up extra adipose tissue just before a growth spurt when it will all burn away. Where obesity *is* the result of poor diet, it may be the result of an eating disorder, which cannot be lectured/scrutinized away, and will actually be exacerbated by society openly shaming fat people and idealizing skinny ones. I can think of few things that will so thoroughly set a child up for long-term health issues like having an early fear of becoming one of those "ugly", "lazy", "shameful" fat people. We may have a childhood obesity problem, but let's not turn it into a childhood anorexia problem (which is also on the rise, BTW). "Let's Move" is almost certainly not the only culprit in this equation, and maybe not even the primary one, but it is the only one I can think of that explicitly targets kids. In that sense, I think it is very right to call it to task for furthering emotionally damaging mindsets. Pro-health can be touted without being anti-fat.

As a size 24 "obese" woman, even though it took me awhile, I read through all of the comments. It's amazing to me how many THIN Christians believe that being obese is a death sentence. I have been fat all my life and including in my childhood in the 1980's. Well, guess what? I was lucky to have been a kid in 80s before the advent of the Internet. I ate healthy, (I didn't start eating fast food until within the last 7 years and I'm 32) and played outside for hours and guess what? I was still fat. If you think that eating right and exercising is going to solve the obesity problem, it may for some people but it didn't for me. I was still the fat kid. Now, as a fat adult, trying to lose weight, I'm not sure if this "Let's Move" campaign serves it's purpose. I was picked on in school for being fat and I can't imagine growing up today. Thank you, CT for bringing light on this issue. Your readership is a bunch of thin adults who have no clue what it's really like to be obese and don't really care except for shunning us fat people. I will say this, to the hospice nurse who says that obese people won't live to see 50, I have two words for you: Aretha Franklin, whose fat and pushing 70. Or better yet, go visit Fairlane Nursing Home in Detroit, Michigan. You will see plenty of fat people who made it past 50. Or better yet, come visit my 80-year-old grandmother whose a size 16/18 and probably in better shape than most. I think if you really want a different opinion, read Junkfood Science or Sueth's Sayings or check out a book by Paul Campos. The real "facts" might surprise you.

I have been a fan of Michelle Obama's mostly because she is one of the few celebrities admired for her beauty and fashion-sense who also has a normal and healthy-looking body - no bones jutting anywhere. That's the kind of role model I hope my daughter takes after... I would have also enjoyed seeing the author offer an alternative solution for dealing with the obesity crisis and promoting a healthy lifestyle on an equal scale with the "Let's Move" campaign. However, mostly I'm writing because I have been thoroughly enjoying Caryn's responses to the commenters on this post - vigorously defending her position while remaining so cheerful and friendly about it. That's a breath of fresh air and the kind of dialogue I hope for from CT!

If nothing else, this will assure that we have another 10 to 20% per cent of young women and girls becoming anorexics or acquiring some other eating disorder. I agree that the overweight problem we face in various nations is serious, but there is something very nazi about the way I am seeing it shoved on everyone. Stats have already shown that the calory nonsense the gov't has forced onto restaurant food menus have had absolutely no positive results. So what's next? As a cigarette smoker for years, I endured being picked on, insulted, shamed, and called a sinner by evil and well-meaning Christians alike. Guess what? Yes, you overweight folks are next. It seems like people always have to have some group to pick out ceaselessly, and Christians are no exception.

I was quite disappointed in this post. While the program may not be perfect, Michelle Obama is targeting a serious problem in our country. "eliminating childhood obesity" isn't a bad thing. Obesity is bad for one's health. She is not trying to eliminate children. Your assertion that she was trying to make certain kids "extinct" was unnecessary. I agree that it is a very fine line with children (and adults for that matter), between striving to be healthy and being overly body conscious. Obama is absolutely not trying to make kids feel badly about themselves or to get them to count calories. She is not saying that kids have to look a certain way or be a certain size. Kids need to be healthy. That's what is important. Healthy comes in many shapes and sizes. I usually enjoy Hermeneutics post, but this one seemed to convey a political message, not a theological or spiritual one. I agree that it is disturbing that any young child would be concerned about calories, but Michelle Obama is not to blame. She did not create a culture concerned with food and calories and diets. That took a lot longer than 2 years. I think this is the perfect platform for a First Lady to address. Yes, she did change her daughters' diets, but she did not put them ON a diet. She told one interviewer that the doctor was concerned, so she worked to limit processed food in their diet. This is something that everyone could benefit from. Yes, we should be thankful for the food God has provided for us, but that has nothing to do with chips or sodas...

From my personal experience as an overweight child and now overweight adult, I am daily bombarded with images and words telling me that I am worthless because I'm fat. And it doesn't matter how much my bubbly personality, my husband, my friend, etc... try to convince me otherwise; I'm still worthless or I'd fix being fat. That is the message that is put forth already by society; how much more damage needs to be done by well meaning people who don't have the faintest idea of what potential factors into a child becoming obese. Everyone thinks if we watch our diet, exercise and get enough sleep and water, everything will work out. Most children don't care about those things and don't overeat or not exercise out of choice. It is when there is a profound impact on them regarding who they are in relationship to others and their self image is shaken, that you begin to see children balloon in size, or start taking drugs, engage in dangerous sexual activities, and many other things along those lines. From my experience if they did a study children from birth to 25, the researchers would find that obesity, while having the exercise, water, sleep, food intake variables, would find that everyone overlooks the following variables: food source factors that were not present back 10 and 20 years ago(i.e. processed, genetically modified, pesticide covered, etc...), psychological factors (i.e. childhood/adolescence being extended too long in the US, divorce rate rises, unhealthy media input, helicopter parenting styles or the complete opposite absenteeism parenting, bullies not removed, but those bullied forced to remove themselves) and that society in general stopped working on the farm and now sit at desks all day.