Healthy living is First Lady Michelle Obama's pet cause. Ever since she established herself in the White House with her husband, President Barack Obama, she has been strongly advocating healthy living and what's more, she practices what she preaches. After launching a campaign against childhood obesity, "Let's Move!", First Lady is now readying for the release of her cookbook, "American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities." Michelle Obama's culinary adventure is going to hit the bookshelves on April 10, 2012 but its publishers, the Random House imprint Crown Publishers have released an early preview of the book.

Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden

Ever since she entered the White House as First Lady, Michelle Obama has been a staunch supporter of practical ideas, recipes, resources on gardening as a means to healthy living. In fact, in 2009, she began digging up a patch on the South Lawn to plant the first vegetable garden at the White House since Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's "Victory Garden." The Garden was to provide for the first family's dietary needs, including regular meals as well as formal dinners. In an interview at that time, Michelle Obama had said, "My hope is tha through children, they (American parents) will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities."

From Garden To Cookbook

In her book, First Lady wants to speak about issues, which have been close to her heart even before she became First Lady. According to a press statement, "The book will speak to those issues which Mrs. Obama has strongly advocated for and will also include practical ideas, recipes, resources, and tips on how to begin a garden of any size, anywhere." The publishers felt that "American Grown" was the most suitable title for the book because it "celebrates the benefits of American community, school, and urban gardens and of healthy, nutritious food..."

Michelle Obama's Health Initiatives

Besides making people aware of the benefits of gardening for healthy living, First Lady has espoused other major causes as well during her years at the White House. She not only helped the US Department of Agriculture's "MyPlate" initiative, which was launched to replace the "Food Pyramid." The First Lady has also been instrumental in launching the "Let's Move!" campaign against childhood obesity.

About the book

The First Lady tells the story of the White House kitchen garden and explores how growing our own food promotes better eating habits and improves health. This is Obama's first cookbook and on its release, it will be issued in print as well as digital editions. The publishers inform that the sales proceeds of the book would be donated to charity and the First Lady has not received any advance on her book. You may check out the book preview here.
 

Image Courtesy: glamourvanity.com, crownpublishing.com