Childhood obesity effects is among the trends in our modern society that is very disturbing. During the past 20 years this problem has grown into an epidemic. The statistics show an aggressive growth of children and adolescents suffering from overweight. However it is simple to diagnose when someone becomes obese it is certainly not easy to cure. When a child becomes heavier and is not able to change eating habits and exercise regularly the chance of becoming obese is considerable. Statistics also show that 30% of overweight adults were also obese children. The treatment of obesity problems reaches abudget of almost $100 billion and death rate as a result of obesity is a 6 digit annual figure.

The effects of childhood obesity are various. Many obese people develop high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and type 2 diabetes. However overweight children rarely suffer from heart disease this often occurs with obese adults.
Besides from physical effects, and sometimes even worse, are the psychological childhood obesity effects. When a child has to deal with social discrimination they often develop a low self esteem. In a study researchers asked obese children to rate their overall quality of life. Results were astonishing, the children's scores were as low as these from cancer patients. The questions that were asked questions about every day activities like walking a longer distance, quality of sleep, doing sports, getting along with children at school. Obese kids had a very low overall score and their parents confirmed these results.

The causes of obesity in children are numerous as there are food intake, family genetics and lack of exercise. Again stats tell us that if the parents are obese the child is likely to suffer from the same condition. The risk of overweight is even bigger when both parents are obese. In most cases a combination of too much calories, no physical activities and genetics lead to obesity.

The society in which we grow up adores ideal body weight and beauty. It is trendy to go to the gym, follow a low calorie diet and develop a nice looking body. While this is not wrong at all it does often lower the self esteem of obese children, one of the effects of childhood obesity.