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Former President Barack Obama falsely claimed thatLets Move,an initiative offormer First Lady Michelle Obama, helped bring down Americas obesity rates for our youngest kids for the first time in 30 years. In fact, research shows the obesity rate for 2- to 5-year-olds has been decreasing since 2004 long beforethe initiative began.

Its true that the obesity rate for young children continued to decline afterthe first lady launched Lets MoveinFebruary 2010, but theres no evidence that it contributed to that decline.

Obama made his claimat Seeds and Chips, a global food innovation summitthat took place in Milan, Italy, between May 8 and May 11.

President Obama, May 9: By working with schools, businesses and local leaders across America, Lets Move actually helped bring down Americas obesity rates for our youngest kids for the first time in 30 years.

We reached out to President Obamas spokesman, Kevin Lewis, for support for Obamas recentclaims. Over the phone, Lewis said Lets Move isnt still active but the mission continues through partnerships and relationships developed during the Obama Administration.

He alsopointed outthat Obama said Lets Move helped reduce obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-oldsin the United States, not that the initiativewas completely responsible for the drop. When we asked for proof that it helped, he said he wouldprovide some by email, but has yet to do so.

When research reporting a decline in the obesity rate of 2- to 5-year-olds was released in 2014, the White House put out a press release quoting the first lady. Though she was excited to see that rates had declined over 10 years, she didnt attribute the decline directly to Lets Move.

Michelle Obama, Feb. 26, 2014: I couldnt be more excited by the news that obesity rates for 2-5 year olds declined by 43% over the last 10 years. Progress of this magnitude can only be explained by the leadership and hard work we are seeing across this country.

Experts told us there is no evidence the initiativedirectly influenced childhood obesity rates.

The former first lady launched Lets Move with the goalof solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation. The initiatives programsaimed toensure that 60 minutes of physical activity [per] day is the norm in K-12 schools across the country and to encourage schools to incorporatesalad bars into lunches, among other goals.

As for achievements, according to the initiatives archived website, Lets Move [i]ncreased access to fruits and vegetables byproviding 3 million students with a salad bar, for example. Reaching over 12 million kids, the initiativealso equipped schools with a customized action plan to increase physical activity among children, the website says.

In unisonwith the initiatives launch in 2010,President Obama signed a memorandum toestablisha Task Force onChildhood Obesity. In a May 2010 report, the task force outlineda planthat aimed toreduce the U.S. childhood obesity rate to5 percent by 2030.

But since the launch of Lets Move, the obesity rate for all children aged 2 to 19 has remained stable. Between2009 and 2014, the obesity rate for 2 to 19 year olds hashovered around 17 percent, up from 10 percent for children surveyed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Since the 1970s the percentage of U.S. children with obesity has more than tripled, reports theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.

Michele Polacsek,a childhood obesity expert at the University of New England in Maine, told us by email that a diet including more sugary drinks likely played a notable rolein the rise in obesity for both children and adults.

Liquid calories are especially harmful because they dont displace other calories in our diet, she explained. A 200 calorie drink doesnt make a person feel full the way a solid food 200 calories would.

According to the CDC, [m]any factors contribute to childhood obesity, such as genetics, the speed of an individuals metabolism, eating behaviors and quantity of physical activity. Children with obesity are at a higher risk for other chronic health conditions, such as asthma and type 2 diabetes, says the CDC. They are alsomore likely to suffer from depression.

Unlikethe trend for children ages 2 to 19, some research hasshown a declining trend since 2004 in theobesity rate for children between 2 and 5 years old. In other words, thattrend began before the launch of Lets Move.

In a paper published in theJournal of the American Medical Association,Cynthia L.Ogden, an epidemiologist at the CDC, and others reported that the obesity rate was 7.2 percent for 2- to 5-year-olds surveyed between 1988 and 1994. This rate peaked at 13.9 percent for kids surveyed between 2003 and 2004.

The first decline in the obesity rate for 2- to 5-year-olds in more than a decade occurred between 2005 and 2006, when the rate dropped to 10.7 percent from 13.9 percent in 2003-2004.

Since the launch of Lets Move, the rate has fluctuated dropping to 8.4 percent between 2011 and 2012 and rising to 9.4 percent for the childrensurveyed between 2013 and 2014. However,Ogden told us by email that the estimates for 2-5 year olds in 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 are not statistically different from each other.

What does statistically different mean?

Ogden and her group estimated the obesity rate for the U.S. population of 2- to 5-year-olds as a whole based on a sample of children in that age range. The obesity rate for the 2011 to 2012 survey sample group, for example, is8.4 percent.

For the population as a whole, the researchers can only estimate the rate withina range, which they call a confidence interval. The range for the 2011 to 2012 survey period, for example, is 5.8 to 11.7 percent.

This means Ogden and her group canconfidently say that the entire 2 to 5 year old populations obesity rate falls within that range, based on their analysis of the sample group. And the ranges for the 2011 to 2012 and 2013 to 2014 survey periods arent all that different from one another.

Overall, the researchers concluded the obesity rate for 2- to 5-year-olds rose steadily until it peaked in 2003 to 2004, and then began to decline.

ButMichael Goran, an expert in childhood obesity at the University of Southern California, isnt completely convinced by these numbers.

There has not been a consistent fall in obesity levels and levels tend to fluctuate from year to year, hetold us by email. We need to see a consistent change to make any more definitive conclusions.

Goran addedthere is no way to directly link/draw a line between what Lets Move did and changes in the obesity rate,as Obama claimed.

Polacsek, at the University of New England, also told us theres no evidence that Lets Movedirectly affected the obesity rate.

Polacsek added thatit would be very difficult to tie Lets Move back directly to national obesity rates especially given that obesity is a multifactorial problem and so many other programs were working to impact obesity rates at the same time.

Polacsek held backfrom making a definitive claim onwhether or nottheres a solid decliningtrend in obesity rates for 2- to 5-year-olds. But she did acknowledge that obesity prevalence percentagesfor 2- to 5-year-oldsjump around quite a bit. The number of participants for each survey period are actually pretty small once they are broken down by age, she explained, and thesmaller the numbers in analysesthe more likely they are to jump around. This means that Ogdens analysis is most useful when looking at multi-year trends but no conclusions should be drawn from one data point to the next, added Polacsek.

However, the CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture does have some additional evidence supportinga downward trend.

Researchers at these agencies looked at obesity trends from 2000 to 2014 forchildren ages 2 to 4 years old from low-income families who participated in theSpecial Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. This program provides food, health care referrals, and nutrition education to women and children under 5.

The researchersfound that the obesity rates decreased from 15.9 percent in 2010 to 14.5 percent in 2014. However, thats still above the 2000 rate, which was 14 percent.

The report adds that, Local, state, and national obesity initiatives, such as Lets Move, might be contributing to the modest declines in obesity by raising awareness of the problem of childhood obesity. But the report provides no definitive support.

Its also worth mentioning that its unclear whether or not programs started under Lets Move will continueunder the Trump administration.

In December 2010, Obama signed into lawtheHealthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which mandated the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to update the meal patterns and nutrition standards for the school lunch program with the aim of reducing childhood obesity. In January 2012, the USDA finalized a rule that requires most schools to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals, among other things.

But earlier this month, USDASecretary Sonny Perdue signed a proclamation thatbegins the process of restoring local control of guidelines on whole grains, sodium, and milk for school lunches. This includes allowing states to exempt schools from having to provide whole-grain products and beginning the regulatory process to allow schools to provide 1 percent flavored milk, which has added sugars.

Lets Movemay havecontributed to adecline in the obesity rate of young children, but theres no evidence of it, as Obama claimed. Experts say this would be a hard to measure, given that childhood obesity is a multifactorial problem.

Editors Note: SciCheck is made possible by a grant from the Stanton Foundation.

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2017-05-12 22:32:12 UTC

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Lets Move actually helped bring down Americas obesity rates for our youngest kids for the first time in 30 years.

Barack Obama

Former President

Speech in Milan, Italy

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

2017-05-09

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Obama on Childhood Obesity Rates - FactCheck.org