Heavy kids getting grown-up diseases

The Indianapolis Star reports:

The psychological impact of childhood obesity also can be serious. Obese kids frequently suffer from severe depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and other debilitating mental health problems. One online site, Blubberbusters.com, averages 100,000 hits a month, mostly from people ages 9 to 20 who post messages about how painful it is being overweight. The site's founder, Dr. Robert Pretlow, said 30,000 kids have posted messages in the past five years, and there have been 70,000 replies.
Many factors are to blame for childhood obesity: overeating, lack of exercise, the wide availability of fattening foods, an increase in TV watching and video game use, and a general lack of attention to the problem.
"There are some who predict that our generation of young people will be the first generation that is less healthy than their parents as a result of the obesity epidemic," said Lloyd Kolbe, a professor of applied health science at Indiana University. "Once these behavioral patterns are established as lifestyles, they're very difficult to change.
"We owe it to our young people not to burden themselves early in life. It's one of those issues where we know what to do but we haven't done it."

Diet and the lack of exercise are to blame.The good news is you can always put that fork down.