One Step Closer to Curbing Childhood Obesity?

In light of Michelle Obama’s campaign targeting childhood obesity, sixteen of the top U.S. food and beverage manufacturers have promised to slash 1.5 trillion calories from their products by 2015. 

With nearly 1 out of every 3 children in the U.S. considered overweight or obese, this agreement between the Partnership for a Healthier America and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (an alliance of more than 80 industry companies), comes at a critical point in our nation’s history.

So what exactly does this pledge mean for the American food system?

Household retailers including General Mills,  Kraft, Hershey, Kellogg, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, ConAgra Foods, and Campbell’s have all promised to introduce lower-calorie foods, reconfigure current recipes, and reduce portion sizes in order to meet their preliminary goal to get rid of 1 trillion (of the 1.5 trillion) calories from their products by 2012.

In the past, we’ve seen food manufacturers take advantage of similar situations — vowing to improve the quality of their products, but for the purposes of generating more publicity rather than addressing the real problem.  Reduced-fat peanut butter for example, removes heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and replaces them with added sugars and carbohydrates.  Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, subbing one undesirable ingredient with another, and then slapping health claims on food packaging, has done little to curb the obesity epidemic.

This time around, however, measures are being taken to ensure companies are held accountable for their promises.  

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an independent health research institute, has been appointed to evaluate the calorie consumption of adolescents in response to these changes.  Mrs. Obama has also publicly addressed the importance of these businesses to redirect their efforts from creative child marketing, and instead focus on increasing the nutrients found in these foods.

So what do you think? Will real changes be made with this new pledge, or will history merely repeat itself?