Sarah Palin, who recently declared that children should be allowed to eat as many cookies as they want at school, thinks First Lady Michelle Obama‘s efforts to stem childhood obesity is funny.
On the Dec. 19, 2010 episode of her TLC reality show, the former beauty-queen-turned-Alaska-governor-turned-reality-TV-star looks around the kitchen of her RV for s’mores ingredients (graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows) and says:
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“This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who thinks nobody in the land should have dessert.”
PALIN: OBAMAS TAKING AWAY OUR GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO BE OBESE
Palin, 46, was making a dig at the First Lady’s Let’s Move initiative, a national program to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity. Specifically, the program encourages kids to eat better and exercise.
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Michelle, 46, a fitness fanatic like her athletic husband, President Barack Obama, launched the Let’s Move campaign in February 2010. As part of the program, Obama advocates the importance of daily exercise.
“It makes you feel better about yourself,” she says. “I always think, ‘Don’t think about how you’re feeling during the workout. Think about an hour and a half from now, how good you’re gonna feel the rest of the day.’ ”
SARAH TO MICHELLE: ‘GET OFF OUR BACKS’
Sarah, a mother of five who runs 5-10 miles a day, has slammed Michelle’s anti-obesity program as an example of the Obamas trying to take away Americans’ “God-given rights to make our own decisions.”
In November 2010, Palin complained on Laura Ingraham‘s radio program:
“Instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician’s wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back.”
1 IN 3 AMERICAN CHILDREN IS OBESE
Meanwhile, childhood obesity, which has tripled in the last 30 years, continues to skyrocket. According to the AP:
One in 3 American children is overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other illnesses. Some experts say today’s children are on track to live shorter lives than their parents.
Obesity is now a full-fledged public health crisis. Two-thirds (or more than 190 million Americans) are currently overweight or obese, and obesity-related diseases are a $147 billion dollar medical burden every year on the flailing U.S. healthcare system.
If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, 75% of US adults will be overweight or obese by 2015, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Samantha Chang is the executive editor of TheImproper and a celebrity writer at Examiner.
[Sarah Palin disses Michelle Obama at 2:34]