Fat camp for kids is off the menu in this economy

The New York Times

reports that strapped consumers and tightfisted insurance companies are making weight-loss camps for plump children increasingly out of reach this year.

Given that 32% of American kids are overweight or obese, this is a major health crisis that will have great repercussions down the road. Any stumbling blocks placed before parents and children looking to confront childhood obesity are a serious problem for everyone, because of the huge health care costs associated with obesity.

But as public health problems go, the lack of affordable weight-loss camps for kids is a pretty lame one. To begin with, it may not be the most effective way for kids to lose weight.

To wit: a Stanford University School of Medicine study found that 64 percent of children with obese parents became overweight, compared with 16 percent
of children with normal-weight parents.