Sesame Workshop wants kids to cut out the fat. The children's programmer plans to teach healthy eating and exercise in Sesame Street's next season alongside the familiar lessons on the alphabet and counting.
The effort is reaction to alarming increases of obesity among children.
Government studies show that 10% of kids today are clinically obese and 30% overweight. Sesame Street characters including Elmo and Rosita will appear in anti-obesity PSAs that will air on commercial stations.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, Elmo and Rosita teamed up with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Sen. Ron Wyden to promote the lawmakers' new bill, which would create obesity education programs in schools.
"It's a challenge for parents to instill healthy eating habits in our children, but when preschoolers get good advice from their friends on Sesame Street, you know they'll listen," Frist said.
