--- title: Michelle Obama Tells Kids She Loves 'Splurging' on French Fries description: The First Lady said that pigging out on favorite foods was fine from time to time, just so long as kids maintain a balanced diet and do plenty of regular exercise canonical: https://time.com/70616/michelle-obama-i-love-splurging/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-21T18:34:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:10.409Z article:section: Health og:title: Michelle Obama Loves "Splurging" on French Fries og:description: The First Lady said that pigging out on favorite foods was fine from time to time, just so long as kids maintain a balanced diet and do plenty of regular exercise og:url: https://time.com/70616/michelle-obama-i-love-splurging/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2aef6a593f20a3f/69868ba6e8524b793c6027e2/485911427.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3069 og:image:height: 1726 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-EASTER-OBAMA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michelle Obama Loves "Splurging" on French Fries twitter:description: The First Lady said that pigging out on favorite foods was fine from time to time, just so long as kids maintain a balanced diet and do plenty of regular exercise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2aef6a593f20a3f/69868ba6e8524b793c6027e2/485911427.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama: I Love 'Splurging' > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 21, 2014 6:34 PM UTC  U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks alongside President Barack Obama and the Easter Bunny during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2014 U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks alongside President Barack Obama and the Easter Bunny during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2014 SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 21, 2014 6:34 PM UTC Michelle Obama said Monday that “splurging is the key to life,” as long as it’s a small part of a healthy lifestyle. “How would you appreciate vegetables if you never had chocolate?” the First Lady said during the White House Easter Egg Roll. “You couldn’t live without a little chocolate, a little French fries.” The First Lady took questions from kid reporters during a question-and-answer session at the annual White House Easter event, and emphasized that occasionally splurging was O.K. as part of a balanced diet, alongside regular exercise, the Associated Press [reports.](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/michelle-obama-splurging-key-life) “I still splurge when I can, but that’s why I try to exercise almost every day,” she told the young journalists, ages 6 to 13 years old. Obama also said that her favorite sport is tennis, and she plays with her daughter Malia about once a week. She added that Malia also likes track and Sasha likes basketball and dance. \[[AP](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/michelle-obama-splurging-key-life)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/70616/michelle-obama-i-love-splurging/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/70616/michelle-obama-i-love-splurging/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama: I Love 'Splurging'","datePublished":"2014-04-21T18:34:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:10.409Z","description":"The First Lady said that pigging out on favorite foods was fine from time to time, just so long as kids maintain a balanced diet and do plenty of regular exercise","url":"https://time.com/70616/michelle-obama-i-love-splurging/","keywords":["Family","Living","Exercise","Obama","Michelle Obama","health","First Lady"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2aef6a593f20a3f/69868ba6e8524b793c6027e2/485911427.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2aef6a593f20a3f/69868ba6e8524b793c6027e2/485911427.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-EASTER-OBAMA","caption":"US-POLITICS-EASTER-OBAMA","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/family/","name":"Family"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/70616/michelle-obama-i-love-splurging/","name":"Michelle Obama: I Love 'Splurging'"}}]}] ```