Effects obesity

Health professionals have labelled the effects of child obesity as an epidemic. More British kids are overweight than at any time in the past which makes this even more apparent.

The effects of child obesity are numerous, including both physical and mental issues. And of course, being overweight at this age also makes you more susceptible to illnesses in adulthood.

The main effects of child obesity are:

• High cholesterol and high blood pressure (both associated with heart disease in adults)
• Type 2 diabetes (once thought to be only an adult disease)
• Sleep apnea
• Overweight kids are five times more likely to have impaired health than their peers
• Orthopaedic problems such as bow legs, overgrowth of leg bones or other abnormalities in bone growth
• Asthma

Of increasing concern however, are the mental health issues. Most prominent is social discrimination and low-self-esteem. Indeed, recent research has found that seriously overweight kids rated their quality of life as low as those of young cancer patients on chemotherapy.

Overweight kids are often teased at school and subject to name-calling and exclusion from activities by their peers. In addition, other people frequently make negative assumptions about their character, for example assuming that they are lazy, unclean and have no feelings.

They may also suffer from fatigue and experience difficulties playing sports.