Move It!

With a little less than 18 months to work with, Let’s Move! Executive Director Debra Eschmeyer has an impressive to-do list: bring revised nutrition facts labeling over the finish line, rally support for gains in school nutrition, and prepare for the post-presidency phase of Let’s Move!

Leadership of some of the top scientific and professional organizations focused on obesity met with Eschmeyer in the White House yesterday to discuss ways to support this work. The group included Jeanne Blankenship (on the right, speaking with Eschmeyer) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Penny Gordon-Larsen and Francesca Dea of the Obesity Society, Ted Kyle and Joe Nadglowski of the Obesity Action Coalition, and Raul Rosenthal of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons. Members of the group reiterated their support for Let’s Move! initiatives and their commitment to addressing the needs of people living with obesity.

A new format for the Nutrition Facts Label was proposed in March of 2014 and updated in July of this year to add a percent daily value for added sugars on the label. This updated proposal is open for public comments until October 13. The Obesity Society and other members of the Obesity Care Continuum have previously spoken out in support of the new format for Nutrition Facts Labeling.

Pushing this change over the finish line will be an important milestone for consumer nutrition information. Only one other change — to add trans fats — has ever been made to the label since it was introduced 23 years ago.

We hope that Eschmeyer can help move it over the finish line.

Click here for more on Debra Eschmeyer, here and here for more on proposed changes to the Nutrition Facts Label, and click here for the Obesity Society’s position supporting these changes.

White House Camp Out from Let’s Move Outside event, photograph © NASA HQ Photo / flickr

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August 19, 2015