Families no longer eat regular meals together. Home cooking is no longer the primary source of meals for many people. Greasy and sugar-laden fast food is cheap, tasty, and available everywhere. Time spent in front of a TV or computer steals time from sports and other activities that burn calories. Manufacturers of snack food and soft drinks advertise their empty calories directly to children.
Schools eliminate or cut back physical education classes.
Because of concerns about community and neighborhood safety, parents keep their children from participating in informal, spontaneous playground activities. Obese children are at risk physically and emotionally. Many become obese teens and then obese adults. They suffer low self-esteem and are candidates for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and many cancers. Diabetes alone can lead to damaged blood vessels, kidney failure, blindness, amputations, heart attacks, and strokes.