Fat is no longer just a feminist issue, it is a societal one too, and that is no bad thing considering a raft of recent research that firmly places obesity as the precursor of unpleasant diseases and premature deaths.
The funny thing though is that despite the fact that more of us are obsessed with losing weight than previous generations, more of us are fat than ever before. And what is certain is that if there is ever a time not to be fat, it is in childhood.
Society has always been fairly contemptuous of fat people, because we have long been encouraged to associate fatness with laziness, sloth, slowness, lack of discipline and lack of control. In the playground or secondary school common room, the contempt is magnified.
No surprise then that the social dimension of being overweight adds to the physical burden of lugging around unwanted fat. It does nothing for one's self-esteem, and lack of self-esteem often influences obese children's lifestyle choices.
So surely we should cheer the fact that Essex University has decided to run summer camps for obese children. This is their route out of the hell that is school for a fat child, release from stigma and a fantastic opportunity for their social lives to be transformed. Who could fault such an ingenious idea?
Essex University's decision to induct kids into healthy eating and physical activity is not new. Leeds Metropolitan University has, for past six years, been running six week summer camps for kids. Part activity holiday, part education programme, youngsters aged 11 and upwards - and sometimes younger - learn about healthy eating options and lifestyle activities that can make all the difference between being a skinny (for which read "good") kid and a fat ("bad") one.
Knowledge is power, certainly, but we also need to know why the child is fat in the first place. The stigma of being fat in Britain is so palpable that it is unlikely that any child, adult or even pet pig would be obese by choice. Sitting around makes you heavier, but only excessive eating takes you over the edge into obesity. So why are kids eating too much, and what are parents doing about it other than sending the product of their labours out to holiday camps?
Until we hear about anorexics and bulimics being sent to similar camps to learn on a six week schedule about how to eat more and exercise less to put on weight, camps remain an unconvincing export of US culture. Compulsive and dysfunctional eating behaviour is no less an eating disorder, but somehow it is subject to less sympathy and higher expectations, even in children.
The superficial appeal of knowing what is good for you and eating accordingly does not work on most grown-ups. Yet we assume it's good enough for children and adolescents whom, at their most sensitive stage of development, we send away to camps, as if they were social failures in need of rehabilitation.
Kids who are fat because they are unhappy - rather than unhappy because they are fat - will end up feeling even bigger failures if they "fail" after their course to keep the weight off. Away from the sterile atmosphere of a camp, the same pressures, whether in the home, or at school, are likely to result in the same response, since camps do not appear to encourage them to explore why they make the choices they do in the first place.
It begs the question of why kids are being sent away to learn how to make lifestyle improvements when they are still under the reign of their parents, who call the shots on what is for tea and when you can go out.
Equally, you cannot blame parents for failing to nuture, or for being ill-equipped to know what healthy eating and lifestyle implies.
But perhaps they, not their children, should be sent to camps to learn how to improve lifestyle and dietary choices for the whole family. After all, where does the child return to at the end of six weeks? Better still, forget the stigma of fat camps altogether and introduce local classes for parents who desperately want to make a difference, but simply don't know how to. And just as psychological services are provided to young anorexics and bulimics, let us make sure that our nation's obese children get their fair share of support.
