Elmo, Big Bird to Promote Healthier Eating Options on Sesame Street

Sesame Street characters including Elmo and Big Bird are gearing to promote fruits and vegetables in a bid to urge children and their parents to practice healthier eating habits.

The nonprofit organization behind the popular children's educational program is allowing the produce industry to use the characters to market healthy foods.

Elmo and Rosita joined the first lady in the State Dining Room Wednesday as new members of her "Let's Move" campaign, which encourages children to stay active and eat healthy.   

"Just imagine what will happen when we take our kids to the grocery store, and they see Elmo and Rosita and the other Sesame Street Muppets they love up and down the produce aisle," first lady Michelle Obama said in the release. "Imagine what it will be like to have our kids begging us to buy them fruits and vegetables instead of cookies, candy and chips," she said.

"That's what this new collaboration between Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association is all about - showing our kids that healthy food can be fun and that fruits and vegetables don't just make us feel good, they taste good too."

Michelle Obama cited a study published last fall in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in which Cornell University researchers gave more than 200 boys and girls ages 8 to 11 the choice of eating an apple, a cookie or both. Most kids went for the cookie. Asked to choose again after researchers put Elmo stickers on the apples, nearly double the number of kids chose the fruit, she said.

The agreement between Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association is the latest step by the private sector to support "Let's Move," the first lady's nearly 4-year-old campaign to reduce childhood obesity rates in the U.S.