Michelle Obama To Attend Olive Garden Announcement

From Yahoo Health. Here's the interesting part--didn't the government announce proposed changes to the food stamp program, allowing recipients to use them at fast food joints and restaurants? Read on.

"Encouraged by Michelle Obama's campaign to reduce childhood obesity, the company that owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and four other popular restaurant chains is pledging to cut the calories and sodium in its meals and overhaul its kids' fare.

Darden Restaurants Inc. was unveiling the changes Thursday, with the first lady on hand to lend support.

The company will pledge to reduce the calories and sodium in all its meals by 10 percent over five years, and by 20 percent over 10 years. For children, French fries and sugar-sweetened beverages will become the exception and not the rule.

All kids' meals will automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and eight ounces of 1 percent milk unless an adult requests a substitute, Drew Madsen, president and chief operating officer of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden, told The Associated Press.

"We think it's the most comprehensive health and wellness commitment in the industry," he said.

Darden's restaurants serve more than 400 million meals annually at more than 1,900 locations nationwide. Its four other restaurant chains are LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52. The Capital Grille and Seasons 52 do not have children's menus.

Darden's promise is part of a trend by the restaurant industry to serve healthier food.

Since the beginning of the year, McDonald's, Burger King, Chili's, IHOP, Friendly's and more than a dozen other large and small chains have said they will begin replacing the French fries in children's meals with fruit and removing enticing pictures of less healthy items from their menus.

Diners have become more health conscious and are asking for improvements, such as for their meals to be cooked without butter or with less salt or to be prepared any way but fried. Then there's Mrs. Obama's campaign to bring down childhood obesity rates.

One in three U.S. children is overweight or obese, putting them at greater risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or other health conditions. Mrs. Obama has said she wants to help today's youngsters become adults at a healthy weight by eating better and getting more exercise.

In a speech a year ago to the National Restaurant Association, the first lady asked members to "actively promote healthy foods and healthy habits to our kids." Consumers, she said, spend half their food dollars on meals outside the home and eat one in three meals at a restaurant. She suggested serving low-fat milk and healthy sides like apple slices or carrots and making French fries available only upon request.

White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes said Darden's announcement amounts to a "full-throated endorsement" of the types of changes Mrs. Obama has asked the nation's restaurant owners and operators to make.

In a National Restaurant Association survey of chefs, two-thirds of those working in the kitchens of family dining, fine dining and fast-food restaurants said their customers were ordering healthier items and paying more attention to nutritional content than they did two years ago.

Similarly, chefs ranked healthful children's meals as the fourth-hottest restaurant trend, behind locally grown and sustainable foods.

The government soon will begin requiring restaurants with 20 or more locations, along with bakeries, grocery stores, convenience stores and coffee chains, to include clear calorie counts on their menus.

Mrs. Obama participation in Thursday's announcement, scheduled for an Olive Garden restaurant in the Washington suburb of Hyattsville, Md., will be her latest appearance with retailers and others in support of her anti-obesity efforts.

In January, she stood with Wal-Mart, the nation's largest grocer, as it pledged to reformulate thousands of products it sells to make them healthier and to push suppliers to do the same.

This summer, the first lady applauded as Wal-Mart, Walgreens drug stores and several regional grocers committed to help eliminate "food deserts" by opening or expanding in rural and urban areas without easy access to healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables."

See how this works? The First Lady gets what she wants, and the President gets what HE wants: an economy spurred on by near-universal food stamp use. If more people eat out, then more jobs for under-educated will be created just from the sheer demand...even if it's from other unemployed or under-employed, and government spending.

Pretty soon, food stamp recipients will be THE ONLY ONES eating out! Why? Well, what usually happens when somebody gets a federal contract? They overcharge, and take triple the time to complete the project. What do you think's gonna happen to these people, sitting there captive in a restaurant, with nothing to compare the prices to, or worse, not caring one jot because Uncle Sam's gettin' the check.

What makes Michelle think that sit-down restaurant food is any better for you than fast food, anyway? They're both swimming in calories, sodium, and sugar, not to mention processing chemicals, and lacking in nutrients.

Sounds like the Darden Restaurant Conglomerate needs a bailout, and here's precisely how to get one! They own Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, and Bahama Breeze.

It's funny, because food stamp recipients have trouble making their food allotments last an entire month, and that's food from the grocery store--how is going to a restaurant to eat an over-priced meal (or three or four, depending on size of family) going to help the situation?

Obesity begins with the shopping cart. Where are Michelle's nutritional sanitation efforts when it comes to grocery stores, or kitchen cupboards, or home refrigerators?