According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016), over the last 30 years, child obesity has risen by over 100%, while adolescent obesity has risen by 400%. Obesity can be described as: “having excess body fat” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, p.1). The purpose of this paper is to take a look at the wide ranging effects of obesity in children, and to focus on the links between obesity and a poor diet, obesity and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes, and obesity and insufficient physical activity.

There are various factors which can contribute to childhood obesity. These incorporate: food choices, eating patterns, being sedentary, genetic risk, having obese parents, the style of parenting, hormonal factors, diabetes of mother during pregnancy, low birth rate, overweight mothers, formula fed babies, and ethnicity (Obesity Society, 2016 & Mayo Clinic, 2015).

There are immediate and long-term negative impacts on the health of obese children, and right from the onset they are more likely to be at risk from cardiovascular disease. One research study that was conducted on children between age 5 and 17, indicated that “70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015, p.1). Furthermore, children with obesity have a greater likelihood of bone and joint diseases, as well as sleep apnea, and psychological and social problems. Moreover, obese children are much more inclined to be obese when they are adults, thereby subjecting them to the risk of a broad range of diseases (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, & Obesity Society, 2016).

When a child has a poor diet they risk developing high cholesterol or high blood pressure. These elements can promote plaque buildup within the arteries. This is very serious, as it leads to hardened and narrowed arteries, and the child could have a stroke or heart attack when they are grown up, as even if they have a better diet when they are older, the damage to the arteries has already been done (Mayo Clinic, 2015).

An inadequate diet which has high quantities of sugar or fat and just minimal nutrients can make children put on weight extremely quickly. Candy, fast food such as McDonalds, and soft drinks like coke, are frequently to blame. In the case of the latter, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services, every day, 52% of adolescent males and 32 % of adolescent females, consume at least 24 ounces of soda. In addition to this, convenience food such as canned pastas, salty snacks, and frozen dinners, can also play a part in unhealthful weight gain (Healthline, 2016).

Over the last twenty years, childhood obesity has generated a massive increase in the occurrence of adolescent and childhood type 2 diabetes. As insulin resistance is strongly connected to obesity, when the latter is paired with a deficiency in relative insulin, this results in the generation of expressed type 2 diabetes. Adolescents and children with this disease with may undergo the macrovascular and microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes at an earlier age than those who develop type 2 diabetes when they are adults. These complications include: retinopathy which can result in blindness, vasculopathy, neuropathy which puts the limbs at risk, chronic renal failure, renal insufficiency, sudden death, myocardial infarction, stroke, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (Pediatrics, 2005).

At the present time in society, children are getting less general physical activity than they used to. This is due to the massive amount of time used on computers at school and at home, spending more time in front of the TV, and having less physical education classes and activities in schools. The sum total of this societal changes means that adolescents and children are having a much more sedentary lifestyle. Children of school age are now passing almost all of their day inside the school, and the only physical activity they have is during classes on physical education, and during recess. It should also be pointed out that the school children may simply go the relaxation area to have a coke or other such unhealthy drink, and to indulge in candy and fast food. Previously, there were mandatory physical education classes. Yet at the present time in America, under 7% of high and middle schools, and just 8% percent of elementary schools, offer daily physical education (Obesity Action Coalition, 2016).