[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 5 (Monday, February 5, 2007)]
[Page 108]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Meeting on Childhood Obesity

February 1, 2007

    The President. Laura and I are so pleased to welcome the Ad Council, 
as well as leaders from our business community, to talk about a serious 
American problem, and that is childhood obesity.
    Childhood obesity is a costly problem for the country. It puts 
stress on American families. And we believe it is necessary to come up 
with a coherent strategy to help folks all throughout our society cope 
with the issue. And I appreciate the Secretary being here. Thanks for 
coming, Mr. Secretary.
    We'll discuss--one of the strategies is to have the Ad Council put 
on an interesting series of ads encouraging children to exercise. One 
way for this Nation to cope with the issue of obesity is to get people 
outside--whether it be through sports or hiking or conservation. So 
we'll encourage them to do that, encourage parents to encourage their 
children to participate in the great outdoors. We'll also talk about 
healthy diet choices here.
    And so I want to thank you all for coming. It's a serious issue that 
we take seriously here at the Government.
    Laura is off to New York to kick off the program to help deal with 
heart disease here. And you might want to say a few words.

[At this point, the First Lady made brief remarks.]

    The President. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 9:20 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary of Health and 
Human Services Michael O. Leavitt. The transcript released by the Office 
of the Press Secretary also included the remarks of the First Lady. The 
Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of these remarks.