Michelle Obama is launching a new brand of food and beverage products. Weiss Eubanks—NBCUniversal/Getty Images
The former First Lady has a new mission: to improve the health of children.
Michelle Obama on Wednesday announced the launch of a new health-focused food and beverage brand, PLEZi Nutrition, which aims to combat childhood obesity.
“Our goal – to make products with real nutrition, to be an ally that parents can trust,” Obama said during the Wall Street Journal Future of Everything Festival on Wednesday, where she announced the launch of PLEZi. “We want to play an important role in creating a healthier generation for all children.”
The first of the company’s products is a fruit drink with No added sugar and only 35 calories (compared to about 150 calories in some sugary drinks) which comes in several flavors. The drink is already available at a limited number of Target and Sprouts stores across the United States. In the coming years, the company plans to introduce snacks and other products.
Obama is the co-founder and strategic partner of PLEZi Nutrition, and the company will be led by a team specialists in public health, nutrition and parenthood.
As First Lady, Obama spearheaded the “Let’s Move” initiative to promote exercise and healthy eating from an early age. Launched in 2010, the campaign has stimulated action at the national level through the Healthy Hunger Free Children Act which provided increased funding to public schools to provide healthier meal options. Obama has also worked with major food manufacturers to reduce the number of calories in their products.
But Obama said she faces obstacles to making real change in child nutrition, even in the White House.
“I learned that on this issue, if you want to change the game, you can’t just work from the outside, you have to come in,” Obama said. “You have to find ways to change the food and beverage industry itself.”
She called out food brands that prey on children’s cravings for sugar and other unhealthy ingredients instead of meeting their nutritional needs.
“Businesses are designed to give people what they want, not what they need,” Obama said.
In the United States, approximately 20% of children aged 19 and under are obese, according to the Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention. Daily consumption of added sugar, related to obesity and type 2 diabetes and heart disease, within the same age group is significantly higher than the recommended levelhaving a negative impact on the health of children from an early age.
PLEZi Nutrition’s motto, she said, is to provide products rich in nutrients like fiber and potassium. But the key was to keep the kids coming back for more.
“We’ve learned that innovation without good taste doesn’t make sense because we really want kids to stop choosing sodas and sugary drinks,” Obama said, adding that PLEZi drinks were designed with idea to change the way children consumed drinks. “A small innovation in an industry that can dramatically improve our children’s health outcomes.”
“We want to contribute to the larger calling – something bigger than our bottom line,” Obama said.
To this end, PLEZi Nutrition will be run as a public benefit enterprise, or a company established with the purpose of doing social good while making a profit.
“I want other companies to know that PLEZi is coming and I want to challenge all companies to do better than us. Innovate more than us,” Obama said. “It is the scale of change that I hope to stimulate.”
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The former First Lady has a new mission: to improve the health of children.
Michelle Obama on Wednesday announced the launch of a new health-focused food and beverage brand, PLEZi Nutrition, which aims to combat childhood obesity.
“Our goal – to make products with real nutrition, to be an ally that parents can trust,” Obama said during the Wall Street Journal Future of Everything Festival on Wednesday, where she announced the launch of PLEZi. “We want to play an important role in creating a healthier generation for all children.”
The first of the company’s products is a fruit drink with No added sugar and only 35 calories (compared to about 150 calories in some sugary drinks) which comes in several flavors. The drink is already available at a limited number of Target and Sprouts stores across the United States. In the coming years, the company plans to introduce snacks and other products.
Obama is the co-founder and strategic partner of PLEZi Nutrition, and the company will be led by a team specialists in public health, nutrition and parenthood.
As First Lady, Obama spearheaded the “Let’s Move” initiative to promote exercise and healthy eating from an early age. Launched in 2010, the campaign has stimulated action at the national level through the Healthy Hunger Free Children Act which provided increased funding to public schools to provide healthier meal options. Obama has also worked with major food manufacturers to reduce the number of calories in their products.
But Obama said she faces obstacles to making real change in child nutrition, even in the White House.
“I learned that on this issue, if you want to change the game, you can’t just work from the outside, you have to come in,” Obama said. “You have to find ways to change the food and beverage industry itself.”
She called out food brands that prey on children’s cravings for sugar and other unhealthy ingredients instead of meeting their nutritional needs.
“Businesses are designed to give people what they want, not what they need,” Obama said.
In the United States, approximately 20% of children aged 19 and under are obese, according to the Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention. Daily consumption of added sugar, related to obesity and type 2 diabetes and heart disease, within the same age group is significantly higher than the recommended levelhaving a negative impact on the health of children from an early age.
PLEZi Nutrition’s motto, she said, is to provide products rich in nutrients like fiber and potassium. But the key was to keep the kids coming back for more.
“We’ve learned that innovation without good taste doesn’t make sense because we really want kids to stop choosing sodas and sugary drinks,” Obama said, adding that PLEZi drinks were designed with idea to change the way children consumed drinks. “A small innovation in an industry that can dramatically improve our children’s health outcomes.”
“We want to contribute to the larger calling – something bigger than our bottom line,” Obama said.
To this end, PLEZi Nutrition will be run as a public benefit enterprise, or a company established with the purpose of doing social good while making a profit.
“I want other companies to know that PLEZi is coming and I want to challenge all companies to do better than us. Innovate more than us,” Obama said. “It is the scale of change that I hope to stimulate.”