The President just doesn’t think video games are all that useful. Despite reports that he bought a Wii for his daughters, Barack Obama hasn’t had many positive things to say about the medium.

Early in his political campaign for president, Obama told parents to turn off and put away their kids’ video games. More recently he cited video games as a health concern, asking parents to have their children “step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.” More encouraging is Obama’s “inclusion of video games as part of a new education initiative,” but there’s no sign that his stance on health with respect to video games has changed.

In light of the First Lady’s recently announced initiative to combat childhood obesity in America, the President’s comments regarding video games perhaps hold more weight (pun intended). The old stereotype of the lazy, sedentary, adolescent male playing video games while eating Cheetos on the coach seems indicative of the kind of poor exercise and eating habits that Michelle Obama wants to change. But could video games be part of the answer to better health and wellness?

Let’s talk numbers for a moment. Around one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese. Calling obesity an “epidemic” might not be so far from the truth. On the other hand, 80% of US children own a video game console. That means a lot of those same overweight or obese kids are playing video games too. Is it that hard to believe that video games could become part of the solution against obesity?

We all know about Wii Fit and the Balance Board. We’ve heard of competing studies about its "underwhelming" effectiveness or supposed benefits, and miracle accounts of dramatic weight loss because of it. But that’s just one game and one piece of technology, and the future holds many more possibilities.

With the advent of Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s yet unnamed motion controller, the future for video games and healthy living seems promising. Imagine a Yoga game that can teach you different poses and then tell you if you’re using proper form, or a push-up minigame that berates you for arching your back too much.

Wii Fit was a step in the right direction, but cameras and motion-sensing technology of the future could be the next evolutionary leap toward more effective forms of health and fitness education in video games.

Political rhetoric today stands decidedly anti-game and pro-health, but why should those ideals exist apart? Kids already own the game consoles, so why not look for innovative ways to use gaming as a means to support wellness initiatives? Internet and television ads are one thing, but getting kids active through the must actively involved medium there is could be an important instrument against America’s obesity epidemic.