Kern-Rugile: Michelle Obama's worthy battle

Jenna Kern-Rugile lives in East Northport.

Despite the partisan politics that characterize our public discourse these days, two prominent Republicans, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee, recently came to the defense of first lady Michelle Obama's efforts to tackle childhood obesity.

In contrast to the "nanny state" hysteria bandied about by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and others who chide Obama's Let's Move campaign as some sort of socialist plot to usurp parental rights, the once-hefty Huckabee jumped off the Obama-bashing bandwagon on "Fox News Sunday" last week.

"What Michelle Obama is proposing is not that the government tells you that you can't eat dessert," he said. Rather, she wants Americans "to recognize that we have a serious obesity crisis - which we do."

The same day, on "Face the Nation," Christie spoke of his own battle of the bulge, saying, "I struggled with my weight for 30 years. If a kid can avoid that . . . more power to them. I think the first lady is speaking out well."

Michelle Obama continues to draw both praise and criticism when she brings her own daughters' weight into the discussion, most recently in late January. She said that her pediatrician had told her "something was getting off balance" and advised her to make some changes. "We often simply don't realize that . . . our kids could be in danger of becoming obese," she said. "We always think that only happens to someone else's kid - and I was in that position."

Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh, executive director of Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders, an international advocacy organization, thought the first lady's comments were inappropriate. "When we speak publicly about putting our children on a diet," she said, "we start to get into weight stigma and confusing the message to families."

Talking to our children about weight is, indeed, a fraught issue. With almost one in three American kids deemed overweight or obese - nearly triple the rate from 1963 - the health consequences are dramatic. No parent wants a child to be at risk of heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.

But we also don't want our kids to buy into the obsession with thinness propagated by Madison Avenue. According to the National Institute on Media and the Family, by age 13, 53 percent of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies," a number that increases to 78 percent once girls reach 17. And low self-esteem isn't the only problem. Eating disorders can be deadly, and they're far more widespread than people realize.

Practically every mother I know says that at some point, her daughter has asked, "Mom, do I look fat in these jeans?" My own was about 7 when she posed that question, despite my efforts to encourage her to have a healthy body image. I guess I shouldn't have been shocked. How many times had she watched me frowning into the mirror?

Robyn Silverman, author of "Good Girls Don't Get Fat: How Weight Obsession Is Messing Up Our Girls and How We Can Help Them Thrive Despite It," says the Let's Move campaign launched by the first lady is right to focus on healthy food choices and exercise. "The discussion should never be about looks," she says. "We don't want our kids to think they are worth more when they weigh less."

Michelle Obama's comments were honest; they mirror the struggle all parents go through when seeking the right way to encourage their kids to be healthy without being weight-obsessed. People can argue about whether she should have brought her own daughters into the conversation, but there's no question it's a conversation we need to have as a nation. Just how we have it at home is another of the many delicate situations parents face every day.