Shape Up, America - Your President Said So

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There's little doubt that the Obamas care about their own personal health. They eat light -- Michelle is known for asking White House chefs to cook cream of broccoli soup without the cream. They're champions of local foods, and they're committed to exercise, despite heavily scheduled lives. But their concern for health and fitness goes far beyond their own family -- they want America to shape up too.

Obama's health reform bill is expected to be heavy on prevention: Workplace wellness, money for bicycle and walking trails, obesity screening, grocery stores in poor neighborhoods and improved nutrition and exercise in schools. "He has expressed more interest in preventing diseases and promoting health than any previous president. It is not a breath of fresh air. It is a tornado," Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, recently told Politico. "That contrast is breathtaking. This is really a rare opportunity to make progress on so many issues."

Obama also recently named former New York Public Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden new director of the CDC. Not only did Frieden make New York smoke and trans fat-free, he also once famously declared that it was "his fault" if any New Yorker died early of a preventable disease.

"People do want to be healthy. It is just hard," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) also tells Politico, "When you walk into places, the fastest, easiest food you can get is the saltiest and highest in fat, highest in calories. I want something quick, but I want it low in all this stuff. I want to give people choices so that they know, so when you put it on the menu board, they know. I think most people, if they knew, they would take better care of themselves."