Feed children only healthy foods in schools

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America today urged all Americans to make healthier choices and society to help remove the obstacles so many people face in making those choices, issuing 10 cross-cutting recommendations for improving the nation’s health. According to the Commission, how long and how well Americans live depend more on where we live, learn, work and play than on medical care, which accounts for only an estimated 10 to 15 percent of preventable early deaths. Building a healthier nation requires a broader view of health, the Commission said.

That's what this blog is all about. Proactively, building a healthier nation -- not by increasing medical care -- but by preventing a multitude of diseases caused by obesity.

I believe obesity is caused by eating too many calories and too many calories are in foods we eat outside the home.

It's clear the federal government should not promote obesity. But it does. It does it through food subsidies and it does it by forcing schools to sell unhealthy foods.

“Everyone must be involved in the effort to improve health because health is everyone’s business,” said Co-chair Alice M. Rivlin, former head of the White House Office of Management and Budget and the first director of the Congressional Budget Office. “People should make healthy choices by eating better, getting enough physical activity and not smoking. Communities and employers should support those choices by creating healthy environments. And the federal government should make and enforce healthy policies, like ensuring that all subsidized food is healthy and junk food is eliminated from schools.”