Ebony May 2012: Michelle Obama explains how she suppressed sugary drinks

This interesting interview, largely reproduced in this post of the Obamafoodorama blog was published in the May 2102 issue of Ebony. Beyond the usual Let's move motto this is a very clear position about 0 sugary drinks and more fruit and vegetables. I am surprised the advocates did not use it more (if at all).


my pediatrician kind of pulled me aside and said, “You know, I’m looking over these numbers, and I think you guys need to look at how you’re eating.” And then he went on to explain what he was seeing in his practice: obesity rates steadily increasing; higher rates of asthma and diabetes in children that he had never seen before; and how he’s looking a lot at lifestyle.

And as I started looking at my own life, I realized ‘Man, this has gotten away from me, and I didn’t even know it.’ So what about the parents who don’t have resources, who aren’t going to the pediatrician and who don’t have the information? And I knew then and there that we needed to up the ante on this issue and that this was an epidemic that showed up on our back door unexpectedly. Yet, it was something that was eminently solvable.

I mean, this is something that we control. And after my pediatrician grave us the heads up, we did some really basic things: we eliminated sugary drinks and added more fruits and vegetables. I also cooked a couple more times a week. We watched what the kids ate when we did takeout. And within months, when I went back to the doctor, he was shocked. He said, “What have you done?” and it really wasn’t that much, but it was conscious. I was actively engaged in something that I had just taken for granted.