Title: Obesity Health Problem, Healthy Weight Basics, NHLBI, NIH
Headings: Why Obesity Is a Health Problem
Why Obesity Is a Health Problem
Adult Obesity Rates and Statistics
Childhood Obesity Rates and Statistics
Health Problems Linked to Obesity
The American Environment

Content: Research has shown that obese children are more likely to be overweight or obese as adults. Data from the 2005-2006 NHANES survey show that in the United States, nearly 13% of adults age 20 and older have diabetes, but 40% of them have not been diagnosed. Type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult-onset diabetes) accounts for up to 95 percent of all diabetes cases and almost all cases of undiagnosed diabetes. Pre-diabetes, which causes no symptoms, greatly raises the risk of a heart attack or stroke and of developing type 2 diabetes. Though rare in youth ages 12 to 19 years, type 2 diabetes is increasingly being seen in children and adolescents, particularly among minority communities. Moreover, the 2005-2006 NHANES data show that about 16% of these youth have pre-diabetes. In a recent national study, 58% of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were obese. The American Environment
Your weight is the result of many things working together—the choices you make, your environment, your metabolism (the way your body converts food and oxygen into energy), and your genes. Changes in our environment that make it harder to engage in healthy behavior have a lot to do with our overall increase in weight over the past few decades. For example: