Michelle Obama takes swipe at Trump over healthy eating legacy

Michelle Obama has not hidden her disgust in Donald Trump's move to dismantle her healthy eating initiative, asking "what's wrong with you?"

The former first lady questioned why the Trump administration were okay with America's children "eating crap" when she defended her Let's Move! initiative on Friday at a public health summit in Washington.

Earlier this month, Trump announced he would be winding back her federally-funded school lunch program, which requires students to be served less fat and more whole grains, fresh fruit or vegetables.

Mrs Obama challenged mothers all over the country, regardless of their political views, to question what the president had to gain by dismantling the program.

"This is where you really have to look at motives, you know. You have to stop and think, why don’t you want our kids to have good food at school?"

She said providing healthy meal options for kids in school should not be a political issue and asked why the nation was forgetting how much of a burden obesity continues to have on the health system and individuals affected.

"Why would you sit idly and be okay with that? Because here’s the secret: If someone is doing that, they don’t care about your kid."

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue earlier justified the rollback by claiming the children did not like the food they were being provide, The Washington Post reported.

Mrs Obama said it was "ridiculous" to throw away a program that would benefit the health of millions of children just because "the kids aren't happy".

"Well you know what? Kids don’t like math either. What are we gonna do, stop teaching math?"

She also objected to a proposed delay of nutritional labels on food that would prominently feature information about calorie and sugar content.

The former first lady said the move would "keep families ignorant".

"You don’t need to know what’s in your food. You can’t handle that, mom. Just buy this, be quiet, spend your money -- don’t ask us about what’s in your food," she quipped.

The food industry wants to push the deadline from 2018 to 2020.