From the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama responded March 15 to online critics of the healthy eating and fitness initiatives she started more than six years ago, according to ABC News.
"When folks mock our efforts, it's parents who need to be out there saying, 'Excuse me, but our children's health isn't a joke. One third of kids being overweight or obese isn't funny. Kids being diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure at young ages is just not a laughing matter,'" Ms. Obama said, according to the report. "This is a serious issue, and we need to be doing something about it."
Ms. Obama said the efforts she's leading are working and that childhood obesity rates have stopped rising. She added she would not stop her work promoting children's health when she leaves the White House next January.
"It's not like I have a one-year or two-year time frame on this issue," she said, according to the report. "For me, this issue is the rest-of-my-life kind of time frame. Because I know that's what it's going to take to truly solve this problem."