The new law would help reverse the worrying trend of doctors diagnosing what used to be considered adult conditions - high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes -- in increasingly fatter American children, and would do so "without adding a dime to the deficit," Obama said.
The new law, which pledges 4.5 billion dollars over 10 years to child nutrition programe will give thousands more US children access to school meals and allow the Department of Agriculture to set nutrition guidelines for food sold in schools, including in vending machines.
It comes at a time when 17 million US children live in households that have to sometimes skip meals to make ends meet, and one in three US kids is obese or overweight.
Obesity were "two sides of the same coin," Michelle Obama said at the signing ceremony.
Experts have warned that the current generation of Americans may be the first to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents because of childhood obesity, which often continues into adulthood and leaves a person more susceptible to developing conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.
A study released in September found that medical costs for obese children amount to 14.3 billion dollars annually.
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