Research Paper on:
Children, Obesity, and Its Impact

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
a growing concern due to the risks associated with obesity which include serious health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, gallbladder disease, stress on weight bearing joints,  sleep disorders, respiratory dysfunction and increased risk to certain cancers among others. The incidence of Type II diabetes has been increasing in children believed to be a direct result of  the increase in overweight and obese children. In addition to the obvious health risks, obese children are also more susceptible to social and psychological problems which may result in isolation  from peer groups and low self-esteem based on societys preference for thinness. Altering this increasing incidence of childhood may be difficult however as not only do hereditary factors play a  part but perhaps more importantly so do behavioral and environmental factors. A great deal of responsibility has been placed on the family environment in changing this trend of increased non-physical  activities such as watching television and playing on computers which have led to the decrease in overall physical activity levels in children. Additional societal influences are the promotion of foods  with high fat and sugar content in television ads and the promotion of large portions in restaurants; a combination of elements which are difficult for children to overcome.  Within the last thirty years in the United States, the rate of childhood obesity has more than doubled as it was estimated that one in  five children between the ages of six and seventeen were considered overweight in 1994 and that number has increased even within the last decade to include one in four or  25 percent of children. Often the terms "obese" and "overweight" are interchanged but often obese is though of as the "upper end of overweight". Clinically, obesity is considered as "greater