Obesity is a disease that is often the result of a lack of regular physical activity and the failure to balance caloric intake with caloric expenditure. Being obese raises the risks of developing several diseases, including heart disease (the number one killer of adults in North America), hypertension, and diabetes. These diseases often take a long time to develop and are often thought to be diseases that only adults have. However, the large number of children and adolescents who have developed "adult-onset" diabetes has required the medical community to use the term type 2 diabetes instead. Furthermore, researchers have been observing high cholesterol levels and the beginnings of heart disease in the arteries of adolescents. Obesity not only poses serious health consequences to children, adolescents, and adults but it also can have negative effects on self-esteem and quality of life. Obese young people are more likely than children of normal weight to become overweight or obese adults and are therefore more at risk for associated health problems of adults, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.
