Talking About Weight vs. Talking About Health

Michelle Obama recently announced that she will be kicking off a national campaign against childhood obesity tomorrow.

In her announcement at a YMCA outside Washington, D.C. on January 28, Mrs. Obama made the issue personal by discussing her own family's process of ensuring healthy, balanced eating.

That sounds like an uncontroversial approach to the topic, and the fact that she referenced her daughters' weight in her comments has set off somewhat of a controversy.

Mrs. Obama reported that the girls' pediatrician pointed out a change in their body mass and suggested that the weight gain should be addressed. The Obamas made a collection of minor changes to their children's eating and activities. ("We did things like limit TV time," Mrs. Obama said. She also "slipped grapes in at breakfast to make a more colorful palate, and threw in an apple at lunch.")

Some may laud her openness and point out that we need to be able to talk openly to pick apart the tricky issues involved in weight and health. Others, however, object to Mrs. Obama speaking publicly about her daughters' weight, pointing out that their health is really what the doctor was putting under the microscope, not their appearance.

“We’ve confused health and weight in a way that’s very confusing for children and very confusing for parents,” eating disorder activist Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh, executive director of Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Disorder, told ABCNews. "There is simply no reason to be pushing children into weight reduction diets and that's the message parents out there get."

How do we navigate these dangerous waters where a change in weight can indicate a change in health but where focusing too strictly on weight pushes children, especially girls, toward disordered eating and low self-esteem?

Did Michelle Obama go too far in discussing her children's weight, or is this a topic we need to be less sensitive about? If talking about weight isn't ideal, what other tools do we have in the discussion of childhood obesity?