Michelle Obama Praises Walmart’s Healthy Food Offerings

The First Lady joined Walmart today in Washington, D.C. to help roll out the company’s new five-year plan to change the nutritional profile of their food offerings. The company plans to make their fruits and vegetables cheaper, switch to packaged foods that contain less sugar and salt, develop a labeling system to help consumers identify healthier foods, and open stores in neighborhoods that are known food deserts. Obama, who’s put great effort into reducing childhood obesity with her “Let’s Move” campaign, joined Walmart executives for the announcement, saying that their changes make her feel more hopeful that her campaign is making a difference.

Walmart is one of the country’s biggest retailers (and grocers), and as Michelle Obama points out, their change could affect millions of customers’ health: “When 140 million people a week are shopping at Walmart, then day by day and meal by meal all these small changes can start to make a big difference for our children’s health. … When healthier options are finally affordable, that can affect every single meal a child eats, whether it’s adding fruit at breakfast or whole-wheat bread at lunch or more veggies on the plate at dinner.”

While we’re slightly skeptical about their plan to create yet another confusing “health” label, we have to side with Obama that their announcement is an extremely promising sign that our country’s health-consciousness might be starting to grow. Does Walmart’s plan (or the First Lady’s endorsement) make you more likely to want to buy their goods? Tell us what you think in the comments section, below:

via NPR