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by Melissa Brunner

  (Image from yahoo.com)

First Lady Michelle Obama tried to add a personal touch to the childhood obesity issue and, for some, it's backfired.

I heard about the comments in coverage of the event last month. She was launching an initiative to combat childhood obesity in the face of reports that the rate has tripled over the past 30 years. She said her eyes to the issue were opened when the pediatrician for her daughters, Sasha and Malia, told her the family needed to make some changes, because the girls' weight was starting to creep up too much.

"In my eyes I thought my children were perfect,” she said at the time. “I didn’t see the changes.”

I remember reading the quote and thinking it was interesting of her to mention, given how protective she and her husband have been of the girls. I didn't give it much more thought until I came across this article on Yahoo! today: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/is-it-okay-to-talk-about-your-daughters-weight-if-it-s-for-the-national-good-579635/.

The article discusses criticism over the comment for opening the girls to undue scrutiny and perhaps even putting them at risk for eating disorders. Others say the First Lady had good intentions, showing no family is immune to obesity issues and all must make healthy choices. However, they say it was unfair to her daughters, since they have the eyes of the world analyzing whether they are fat.

It's an interesting debate. One I'm interested to hear your thoughts about. It always makes an impact when someone talks about how an issue personally affects them, but was this a case of a person in a situation where she should have left it a private family matter or a person whose situation makes the warning carry even more weight?