First Lady Michelle Obama has made it her personal mission to help curb the childhood obesity epidemic in America’s children. One in 3 American children is overweight or obese, with that rate much higher among black and Hispanic children, which puts them at higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other serious illnesses. 1 in 5 children becomes overweight or obese by age 6, and more than half of obese children become overweight before the age of 2. Experts say that today’s children are the first generation in decades to have a shorter life expectancy that their parents.

Those are alarming statistics, but Mrs. Obama has high expectations for our youth. She has said her goal is to help solve the problem in a single generation so children born today will be at a healthy weight when they come of age.

In order to do this, Mrs. Obama assembled the Childhood Obesity Task Force, who released their first report Tuesday, May 11th, outlining around 70 recommendations to help lower the rate of childhood obesity.

A dozen federal agencies, including the Education, Agriculture, Health, Interior and Transportation departments, participated in the Childhood Obesity Task Force, and thousands of participating parents had 90 days to complete the report. In addition to research and planning, the panel also read through more than 2,500 suggestions from the public on how to approach the epidemic.

“For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family and one community at a time,” Mrs. Obama said. “We want to marshal every resource — public and private sector, mayors and governors, parents and educators, business owners and health care providers, coaches and athletes — to ensure that we are providing each and every child the happy, healthy future they deserve.”

The panel’s report states a woman’s weight before she becomes pregnant and the amount of weight she gains during her pregnancy are two of the most important factors that determine whether a child will become obese. Breast-feeding after birth has also been found to drop a child’s risk: children who are breast fed are 22 percent less likely to become obese.

Other recommendations from the panel are for restaurants to cut portion sizes and post more nutritional information, and calls for updated federal nutritional standards for meals served at schools, more school-based nutritional education, incentives for supermarkets to open in underserved areas, and for pediatricians to better track patients’ body mass index (BMI).

The report and recommendations are advisory, but Congress has already begun updating the nutritional guidelines for food served in schools, including the infamous candy and soda filled vending machines. Pending legislation would also spend $4.5 billion more over the next 10 years on nutrition programs for children.

Notice none of these guidelines have anything to do with what children should do- because our children rely on us to feed them and ensure they are healthy. To read all 70 recommendations, you can find the panel’s full report here.

Photo: Going Well