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We cannot discuss obesity in the same terms when it deals with children as it relates to adults. Some researchers avoid the word ?obesity??altogether in an effort to avoid stigmatizing individuals. Others use the term ?childhood obesity??to speak of a general phenomenon. Nevertheless, obesity is indeed a problem among young people, no matter what terminology you choose to employ.

In the year 2001 in the United States, the Surgeon General released a report outlining the crisis of obesity that the country had fallen into. The point of the report was to generate steps towards taking care of this health problem, which has reached epidemic proportions. The following year, the IOM (Institute of Medicine) was called upon to draw up a prevention plan to help decrease the rising numbers of obese and overweight children in the United States. The idea was to study the behavior and cultural and environmental factors that contribute to childhood obesity while trying to find ways of preventing this from occurring on such a large scale.

The problem of children being obese is a grave one, in that it can have lasting effects on one?s emotional and physical health. In the year 2000, it was estimated that about a third of all children born in the United States are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes in their lifetimes.

People who are overweight and/or obese are at major risk for contacting severe chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and hypertension. For children afflicted with severe weight problems, they can contact gall bladder disease, liver disease, sleep apnea, and may run the risk of high cholesterol.

Children are also at risk for contacting asthma. Overweight boys tend to have a higher risk than overweight girls. The effect of asthma is greater in children who are nonallergic. A recent study concluded that asthmatic children who were obese suffered a lot more than non-obese asthmatic children. Obese children with asthma tend to wheeze more, require more medication, and end up having to make more visits to the emergency room.

In addition, there are the emotional and psychological repercussions that come with being overweight and obese. Young people are often stigmatized for their weight in a society that has little tolerance for this condition.

Then there are the financial costs of obesity. Since the late 1970s, the costs related to obese children at hospitals have tripled. Nationally, we spend over $100 billion each year on healthcare related to overweight and obesity.

The key to combating obesity seems to lie in energy balance ??that is controlling the amount of calories that are consumed versus the amount of calories that are expended. So in other words, when we talk about fighting obesity, we have to talk about both eating and physical activity. This might seem pretty simple, but the fact is eating and physical activity are caught up in a number of complex social and environmental forces. In the last three decades that have seen the epidemic of obesity balloon out of proportion, the society has undergone major changes.

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