Michelle Obama has right idea about healthy eating

I have a huge crush on first lady Michelle Obama.

And no, it has nothing to do with her beautifully sculpted biceps.

She has arguably the keenest intellect of any first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.
Instead of engaging in the mainstream media’s desire to turn her into a fashion model,

Obama is using her talents and platform to preach a new message about healthy eating and lifestyle choices.

Did she rebel against 24-hour fast food eateries or criticize the makers of mass consumption foods?

No. She planted a vegetable garden.

Armed with shovels, rakes, pitchforks and fifth graders, the first lady broke ground Friday on a 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped patch of grass on the South Lawn of the White House.

The garden will include spinach, broccoli, at least four different kinds of lettuce and berries, and various other fruits and vegetables, including a beehive.

The 26 fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, D.C., assisted in shoveling up dirt, raking leaves and wheelbarrowing dirt into a central location. After finishing their work, the children were treated to apples, apple cider and cookies in the shape of a shovel.

This garden is the first kitchen garden planted on the White House lawn in 60 years.
The last first lady to plant a garden?

Eleanor — with her Victory Garden planted during World War II.

The first lady’s decision to plant a vegetable garden on the White House lawn — complete with a wish list from the White House kitchen in terms of fresh produce — comes at the same time as a disturbing report from the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study concluded African-Americans suffer heart failure at a rate 20 times higher than their white counterparts. It found heart failure rates for African-Americans in their 30s and 40s are the same as white patients in their 50s and 60s.

It also found one in 100 black men and women could develop heart failure before age 50, according to CNN.

This study frames the importance of the White House vegetable garden in a whole new light. It’s a symbol of sustainability — clearer than anyone testifying to Congress on C-SPAN and visible from E Street on the South Side of the White House.

And the garden idea has others jumping on the freshness bandwagon.
California first lady Maria Shriver announced on last Tuesday plans for an edible garden on the grounds of the state Capitol.

Both gardens have been championed by noted California chef Alice Waters, who has lobbied for a White House garden for the last decade.

“Fresh, wholesome food is the right of every American,” Waters told The Associated Press. “This garden symbolizes the Obamas’ commitment to that belief.”

In an age where we can order tacos, cheese sticks, bacon, egg and cheese biscuits and double decker burgers all at the same place at any time of the day, this new garden will send a powerful message about the benefits of local, homegrown produce — both in terms of physical and financial prosperity.

Locally grown fruits and vegetables are not only healthier than their canned and processed alternatives packaged in bulk at most supermarkets, they taste infinitely better and cost much less. The conveniences of the 21st century have allowed this nation — and this state in particular — to get increasingly fat, myself included.

But we can cut back. We can show the world we aren’t a nation of lazy slobs addicted to high fructose corn syrup as if it were crack.

With one day of hard work, Michelle Obama proclaimed it from the loudest megaphone in the world.

I love her.


Originally published in The Daily Reveille...