Michelle Obama: Health and French fries

by Mark Silva

This may sound familiar:

A first lady talking about healthcare.

"The country has moved to another point in time," First Lady Michelle Obama said of the president's push for healthcare reform - a different plan, at a different time, from the one which former President Bill Clinton and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton pushed wiothout success in the 1990s.

"It's not going to be easy, but you have more people who are ready to try to figure it out,'' Michelle Obama said in an interview aired this morning on ABC News' Good Morning America. "And hopefully that will ultimately make the difference this time around. "

Success is possible now, she suggested, because "more and more people are ready for this kind of reform."

Yet the first lady, who has attracted a lof of attention to the cause of healthy eating with the planting of a White House garden, inviting Washington-area schoolchildren in to help out, allows that her own favorite food lies somewhere off the organic chart:

"I love French fries: my favorite food," she said.

But that doesn't rule out a healthy diet, according to a first lady hoping that she, by example at home and with a bully pulpit, is "ringing the bell'' about the need for good food and exercise.

That's part of what we try to teach our kids,'' she said.

"It's not about never, ever,'' she said of those favorite fries. "There are some people who make that choice. We're not one of those. I love food. It's really about balance and choices.... My hope is that if I play a role in sort of ringing the bell of prevention and wellness and exercise, if that changes somebody's life or it sets a new tone for the next generation, I think that can be helpful."

(Photo above of Michelle Obama gardening with schoolchildren at the White House last week, by Alex Brandon / AP)>

The first lady sat with "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts in the garden on the White House South Lawn.

"We try to do more meals as a family," Obama said. "Just sitting together and having dinner has made a huge difference in how we eat and enjoy food."

The girls are eating their vegetables.

"Sasha likes peas, and Malia is a pretty big broccoli fan," she said, acknowledging that it's difficult for families to promote healthy eating. "The truth is, people are busy and they're stressed and they're tired. hat I know. And far be it from me to be a part of adding any more stress to anyone's lives - 'because 'Michelle Obama did it; that means I have to do it.'

"I have a lot of help. I've got a mother here, I've got resources. I would be remiss in not acknowledging that. But I would also urge people to think about the small things that they can do within their control."

Her own passion for healthy eating stems from her own experience as a working mother before arriving at the White House, the attorney and former Chicago hospital executive said.

"Probably like most moms, working mothers, working parents, there is a period when you struggle to figure out with a busy schedule, how do you feed your kids and make sure that they are eating healthy?" she said, recalling a time when the family was eating take-out and "a lot of easy, fast foods, and I saw it starting to take a toll on my kids' health."

The family's pediatrician suggested they change Malia's and Sasha's eating habits, she said, and during the presidential campaign they started eliminating processed food and adding fruits and vegetables to their diet, cooking more, eating out less.

"I feel more energized," their mother said. "I feel more invigorated when I'm following a healthy routine. And if I feel that way, I can only imagine how my kids feel. So you know, this is something that we can take on in this country."

The nation finally is paying attention to childhood obesity, she noted. "I don't think we have to call it a crisis to make change. It is what it is," she said. "You can look in your own neighborhoods, in your own families, in your own lives and see the truth of that. So we don't need someone to label it to know that we can fix it.

"Government can't do it all," she said, emphasizing the importance of things like exercise. "These things will eliminate obesity and cut down on costs. I mean, we're spending about $120 billion additional a year on our health care system as a result of these sort of chronic illnesses that you see that are connected to obesity. We already know that."

Her own focus is on "talking with young people before these habits are ingrained about what it means to grow your own food, what it means to eat something that's grown locally, because what I found was that kids are very simple. They eat what tastes good and if a carrot tastes good, they'll eat it. And what we've found is that freshly grown food is -- it just tastes better.

"My hope is that if I play a role in sort of ringing the bell of prevention and wellness and exercise, if that changes somebody's life or it sets a new tone for the next generation,'' she said, "I think that can be helpful."