The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first-ever weight-loss drug for children. Hoffman-La Roche's Xenical (orlistat) is now permitted to treat obese 12- to 16-year-olds, the company said in a statement.

On the one hand, I suppose that this is a necesary intervention, considering the prevalence of obesity in adolescents, and the related huge increase in incidence of "adult" diseases like Type-2 diabetes in kids.

But really, this isn't going to solve anything. Parents need to make their kids dietary health a priority. Get them off their buts and out from in front of the TV, and most of all, cut foods made with high-fructose corn syrup and other high glycemic index sweeteners out of kids diets. Oh, and heavily processed saturated fats, those can go too.

Eating better, and feeding your kids better is not that hard, it just takes planning ahead a little bit. Here's a crock pot, quit whining about not having time to cook. Make more than you need every time you cook, you have a freezer, don't you?

High quality dark chocolate is yummy and a great source of anti-oxidant flavonoids. Ho Ho's are a great source of... well, nothing really.

I feel sick every time articles quote parents who "don't have time" to feed their kids good food. I have a strict rule about cooking, no more than two pans and half an hour of my active attention to make the entirety of dinner. And I usually end up with enough to feed 2 people for 2 or 3 days. And I work the kind of long hours companies push on single people who "have more time for work." And tell the paper about how much time you have to watch your child get sick with diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease before *you* do.

Just because there's a pill for it, doesn't mean the pill is the right solution. Especially for children. We learn our eating habits at home. What's going to hapen when these kids go off of their weight-loss drugs?

First Weight-Loss Drug for Children Approved