Recipes for Life

Students in Eagle Pass, Texas, go to summer camp to learn how to eat better, play harder, and make smarter decisions about their health.

Eagle Pass, Texas

While stringing plastic beads during arts and crafts time at a school-based summer camp for overweight children, 11-year-old Francisco Oca lists some of the reasons he was once “real fat.”

He drank a lot of soda. He ate large amounts of his mother’s Mexican cooking, which he loves. About twice a week, he ate hamburgers and french fries from McDonald’s.

But now, he says proudly, when he’s thirsty he drinks water, juice, or milk instead of his favorite soft drink: Dr Pepper. He’s cut back on fast food. And he’s found he even likes vegetables, such as...