Michelle Obama announces new agreement with food manufacturers to lower calories and fight childhood obesity

Michelle Obama announced today, May 17, 2010,  that the Food and Beverage Manufacturer have agreed to make changes to their food products that will result in a 1.5 trillion calorie reduction by 2015.  That's a lot of calories!

So what exactly does that mean.

The companies that support the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will be offering more lower calorie options food products and creating new foods that are lower in calories.

How exactly will they do this?

• changing product recipes where possible to lower the calorie content of current products
• reducing portion sizes of existing single-serve products

I think this is a good step in the right direction and my only concern is that the food manufacturers don't start adding chemicals and unnatural additives to substitute for lower fats and sugars in the food products.  So read the labels to make sure that low fat or low sugar or "low calorie" items are not be compensated with chemicals to make them taste good.  It is really in our hands.  If we don't buy unhealthy foods, food manufacturers will stop making them.  If we want smaller portion goods, than we need to buy it.  That is what drives these companies, it is their sales.

But I really have a great deal of respect for Michelle Obama because she is serious in her quest.   We hear about changes all the time, but don't really see them because there is no accountability.  Michelle doesn't just want talk, she wants results.  To help make sure that these companies are going to honor their commitment:

"The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will support a rigorous, independent evaluation of how the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation’s efforts to reduce calories in the marketplace affect calories consumed by children and adolescents. RWJF will publicly report its findings."   (from press release)

Well, I will be watching and sharing more news on this topic  as it comes out. If you have thoughts, opinions or ideas about this, please share them below