Safe Diets for Children

The old saying, "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't true", can be applied to almost any situation, but this idea really resonates in relation to weight loss. 

Fad diets, or fashionably popular diets, have been around for years. They make losing weight seem like a quick project to be checked off of a to-do list. The truth is, if losing weight was that quick and easy, overweight and obesity wouldn't be at the epidemic proportions that they are throughout the world today.

As children, my siblings and I grew up in the city. Our parents bought all our food from the supermarket. But for two weeks every summer for a number of years, they took us to visit good friends of theirs who had a farm on 20 acres in Vermont. We fed the pigs, cows, goats, sheep, and chickens. We gardened, learning to tell the delicate green fronds of baby carrot tops from the equally delicate baby weeds. We picked blackberries, ate them until we were covered with purple stains, and gave the remainder over to be made into pies.

Yo-Yo dieting is a vicious cycle of losing weight, gaining it back, losing the weight again, and then gaining it back again.  Over and over again.  Like a yo-yo going up and down, the yo-yo dieter's weight goes up and down as well.

Fat camp is a slang term used for a summer camp program where overweight and obese children and teenagers are sent.  While the fat camp term offends many, it is how many parents and even the children who attend them refer to traditional weight loss camps.  At fat camp, or traditional weight loss camps, activity levels are raised and food is closely monitored and often restricted. 

And campers can lose weight at fat camp.  But not for long.