Yesterday, First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign brought her Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA) Conference. She spoke on preventing childhood obesity, urging manufacturers (many of them producers of processed foods and sugary beverages) to get in on the efforts to promote healthy eating habits in children.

She told them to rethink their products and advocated for clear, consistent labeling for parents and a shift towards marketing healthier foods to kids rather than junk. “Folks just don’t have the time to line products up side by side and figure out whether these compare or not.  And they shouldn’t have to.  Parents shouldn’t need a magnifying glass and a calculator to make healthy choices for their kids,” she said.

She also addressed the fortification of unhealthy foods often used to convince consumers that, say, a snack food or sugary beverage is good for kids just because it has something like calcium or vitamin C in it.

I thought Marion Nestle posted a great re-cap of the First Lady’s speech on her blog, Food Politics. If you have time, please check it out, or if you have even more time, you should click on the link there to read the speech in its entirety.

Time will tell whether grocery manufacturers actually get moving on Mrs. Obama’s proposals,  but I still find this encouraging. Great step in the right direction. So far, I’ve been pretty impressed with Let’s Move.