The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) leadership has announced that it will ban obese members from participating in this year’s national Jamboree.

The gathering takes place every four years and includes a number of physically demanding activities, including rock-climbing, whitewater rafting, mountain-biking and strenuous hiking trips. The newly imposed fitness requirements potentially eliminate a growing number of overweight young scouts from such events.

The decision has quickly raised objections from parents and advocacy groups who see it as a form of discrimination against children who struggle with weight problems and already suffer from widespread stigmatization in society.

Setting fitness standards for participation in the Jamboree was not meant to exclude obese kids but rather to motivate them to lose weight and improve their health, according to Dan McCarthy, a high ranking official in the BSA who spoke to Fox News on the subject.

That may be a good intention in theory, but the results can be quite different.

“While the BSA deserves credit for its commitment to the health and well-being of children, and for its efforts to address the difficult issue of childhood obesity, the decision risks perpetuating a stigma, which could in fact make the problem worse,” says Dr. Michael A. Friedman, a clinical psychologist practicing in New York City. “There is perhaps no group that is the subject of more stigma than obese children. This plays out in the form of teasing, ridicule for their appearance, blame for their condition, and assumption that they are lazy or lack willpower. All this, despite evidence of powerful genetic, biological and environmental forces that maintain childhood obesity.”

These assessments are supported by a study from the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, Canada, that found obese children to be twice as likely to develop low self-esteem, compared to their normal-weight peers.

“The current childhood obesity epidemic may trigger an increase in the prevalence of low self-esteem in the future. [It] may increase the prevalence of not only chronic diseases but also poor mental health,” the authors of the study report concluded.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 17 percent, or 12.5 million, of American children and adolescents are currently diagnosed as obese. Obesity prevalence among the young has nearly tripled since the 1980s, and there seem no measurable improvements in sight.

Self-esteem and body image become more closely connected as children move into adolescents, about at the age of 14, says Dr. Richard Strauss, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and author of a study on childhood obesity and self-esteem. He found that “obese children with decreasing self-esteem demonstrate significantly higher rates of sadness, loneliness and nervousness, and are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as smoking and consuming alcohol.”

Sadly, prejudice, stereotypes, stigma and discrimination towards obese persons of all ages remain a socially acceptable form of bias in our culture, says Dr. Rebecca Puhl, a research scientist at Yale University and co-author of a study on the effects of stigmatization of obese people.

Based on her findings, Dr. Puhl says, weight stigma is not a beneficial tool to promote health or reduce obesity. “Rather, stigmatization generates health disparities, and interferes with implementation of effective obesity prevention efforts.”

Especially in growing children, negative thinking about one’s body can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy, says Dr. Helen Pavlov, a radiologist and frequent contributor to Huffington Post on a variety of health issues. Instead of adding to the insecurities youngsters inevitably go through, parents, teachers and other adults in their lives should help instill feelings of self-worth to contribute to their becoming healthier and more confident adults, she says.

Perhaps, the Boy Scouts could schedule an event next time that includes exercises in tolerance and support for those who need it the most.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com.  For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com). You can follow Timi on Twitter, on Facebook, Google+ and on Pinterest.