WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2010 /
Christian Newswire/ -- Today, First Lady Michelle Obama will announce a campaign to end childhood obesity along with legislation to back up the effort -- the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. While the idea that obesity is a threat to national security is new, there is broad general agreement that childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in America.
Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute, said, "What many people fail to notice is the link between family breakdown and childhood obesity. As single-parent, female-headed households increased, the number of children who are overweight or obese also increased."
Crouse added, "Television -- with its junk food advertisements and encouragement of a sedentary lifestyle -- has become the universal babysitter. Children are spending more hours watching television than they spend engaging in other daytime activities or in sleeping at night. In addition, more and more children are spending time on the Internet or playing video games, instead of running, biking, and playing outside."
Crouse concluded, "Poor nutrition goes hand-in-hand with lack of activity to produce obese children. The experts see a trend toward moms grabbing fast food to eat in the car while coming home from work after picking up the kids at school or day care."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
