White House announces multi-billion dollar plan to attack obesity, hunger

Was done before. Didn't work and more money will be wasted.

It's a good job the US only has a $30 trillion national debt, or it wouldn't be able to afford to cosset its citizens in this way.

Fixing obesity requires willpower. It's not easy, but it is free. And healthy food actually costs less than junk food.

If the government wants to help, they could improve parenting skills. Poor diets begin at a young age. If cooking ('Home Economics') isn't taught in all US schools, fix that too. If you aren't taught to cook at school, it's not much of an education.

If you are getting a bit of a tummy, ease off on the salt, fat, sugar and booze and do a bit of daily exercise. Not for your parents, your teacher or your president, but out of enlightened self-interest. You really do not want to be carrying extra weight as you age. Your later life will be much worse as your increasingly arthritic joints and weakening legs try to waddle those extra pounds around. The first week is tough and it won't happen overnight, but a bit of regular exercise will help you sleep, reduce constipation and breathlessness, and bump up your energy levels. And you'll soon start to look like George Clooney/Madonna again. Ish.

We may all have picked up some bad habits in lockdown, but if you can squeeze a bit of regular exercise into your day, snack a bit less, and eat a bit better, you are likely to live longer. You don't even need to buy exercise gear. Just check out the videos on YouTube for basic exercises.

The obesity part will not work. Not being obese is not politically correct, and asking people to lose weight will certainly get the left riled up.

Multi-billion dollar plan?

Billions of dollars to tell people to quit shoveling three-person portions in their mouth?

Here's a free two-step plan:

Eat less.

Exercise more.

Highly recommend jogging daily if possible. Helps mental health as well.

Its ok if you are young and already in great shape, but most people that are already overweight or obese would have a difficult time doing this. I jog at least once a week and have a difficult time not overeating after wards. Daily jogging is also hard on the joints, especially for an aging obese person.

I would recommend calorie restriction and fasting over just plain "daily jogging". Long walks or hikes in nature are fine too, especially for mental health. Its all about consistency and will power at the end of the day and sadly, the older you are, the harder it becomes to lose weight.

How about telling all the plate manufacturers to make them smaller as they were in the 70-80s. Plates now are huge and nevermind restaurants, there they are bringing platters out to the guests at every table. No wonder doggie bags are so common there, the public has been conditioned to eat with their eyes and not their stomach. I've never ever taken food home from a restaurant in Japan, it's just enough what they give me and I finish it. Good luck America.

Every time I go to Japan, I'm just overwhelmed at how much food is surrounding you constantly walking around in the big cities. Restaurants, street food, convenient stores, etc, food is just everywhere you look, but nobody is overweight or obese. I think several factors on why Japan or Asian countries are not overweight or obese, healthier diets, more exercise, smaller portions (correct sized portions), and just culturally more restraint.

The US obesity problem is all about big portions, bad food, no exercise, and unhealthy lifestyles. The money they dump into this is going to be a waste. Bottom line is that people have to want to eat healthier, eat less, and exercise more.

lol This is obviously a cunning political strategy.

A Democrat Prez telling the nation to lose weight? The Republicans will go the opposite way simply out of principle, refuse to 'let the guvmint tell us wot we cn eat', pile their plates even higher, double up on the snacks, balloon in size and chomp their way into an early grave. Come the next election they'll be either dead or unable to lift their sorry fat backsides into their mobility vehicle to make the trip to the polling station, resulting in a landslide victory for those who don't need the guvmint to tell 'em wot to eat coz they already eat right.

Clever one, Joe. Crafty.

Lots of “billion dollar plan”s, billions for the war machine, billions for Ukraine and billions for Israel, billions for the corporate welfare and billions for big pharma. I wonder what would happen if a president ran on billions for the working and middle classes?

Whoever is hitting the Ctrl-P is gonna have sore fingers.

 'let the guvmint tell us wot we cn eat',

Oh you’re sharp. Does Schwarzenegger talk like that? I didn’t know. He’s a Republican right?

@GBR48

If the government wants to help, they could improve parenting skills. Poor diets begin at a young age. If cooking ('Home Economics') isn't taught in all US schools, fix that too. If you aren't taught to cook at school, it's not much of an education.

We had Home Economics classes and childhood obesity was relatively rare in the US when I grew up (many years ago). We also had physical education (PE) classes for every grade at school. Eating at fast food chains and drinking sodas were luxuries for my family and our food budget was very limited. I grew up eating chahan and it's many varieties thanks to my Japanese mother. I was very active physically (walked and rode my bicycle everywhere) and I was thin.

However, all of this changed during the next two generations. Frazzled American families strapped for time bought Happy Meals from McDonalds to appease their children (as in the case of my younger brothers and their children) and families ate out more often. Obesity is now quite common in the US as a result.

I applaud the President's effort in trying to curtail obesity because of the many health issues such as diabetes and osteoarthritis which occur as a result. However, I believe it's going to take a combination of methods to lose weight, such as being more active (exercise), eating lean foods and smaller portions, eating a wider variety of food, etc. For anyone on that journey, I wish you the best of luck. Ganbatte kudasai!

You talking about 100 of billion of dollars

Does Schwarzenegger talk like that? 

Sorry Schwachan, it was meant to be redneck hillbilly.....

And of course there will be millions of American's, mainly of the conservative type, that will consider any law to prevent them from getting all the calories they want at any time, an attack on freedom. Of course... those same people don't quite realize that they've been brainwashed for decades by big corporations and their underhanded methods to control them into thinking this way. In general, anything that is good for American's or the Country overall, is going to go against the wishes of some big corporations and will be portrayed by them in one way or another as bad. The grip large corporations have on the U.S. Legislative branch is overwhelming. Before anything can be really fixed they need to put a wall between them.

The food conglomerates pushed this along by putting sugar in everything.

Go to the supermarket and check out the sandwich meats packages. Packaged ham, turkey, chicken are all loaded with sugar.

Go to McDonalds and two Big Macs meals are less than a dollar more than one Big Mac meal.

I get it. Make people fat so they have to buy more food.