Andres Acevedo Ms. Su Ying Yang ESOL-101 8 March 2013 Effects of Obesity Obesity is defined as an abnormally high and unhealthy proportion of body fat in the body; this is detected and measured with a formula based on weight and height known as the body mass index (BMI). Obesity one of the most common health problems in the United States. According to results from the 1999–2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) show that an estimated 64% of U.S. adults suffer from obesity (Stern and Kazaks 198). Obesity has different types of consequences such as social effect that mainly focusses the discrimination; health effects which are associated to many illnesses like type 2 diabetes, heart problems, and cancer. And psychological effects of obesity that include mental illnesses like eating disorders, mainly anorexia and bulimia. The principal social effect of obesity is discrimination, and the consequences of this social disassociation vary greatly. Individuals with obesity find issues arising from weight, including rejection from their partners, problems getting good jobs, and becoming involved in love relationship. Rejection from society because of obesity is best known in environments such as schools and sports clubs; both are due to the discrimination against obese people especially in schools where bullying is currently increasing. Discrimination in the workplace is due to the myths that obese people tend to be lazy, weak, unambitious, and failure-prone. Some people may also believe that society will associate them with those problems if their partner is an obese person. (Stern, Kazaks 110). Getting a stable job as a person suffering with obesity is difficult. People often underestimate obese people because they believe that they would not be able to work well or they would not be useful. One study found that 16% of employers reported they would never hire an obese individual, and 44% said they would hire the obese only in the rarest circumstances. This prejudgment prevents overweight people from being frequently employed and leaves them more susceptible to become employed with lower salaries. Obesity is especially detrimental to females; those who were overweight as adolescents completed fewer years of high school, had lower household incomes, and higher levels of poverty. Studies indicate women may experience more discrimination than men. (Evelyn 48). Due to the current standards of beauty in the United States it is very difficult for obese women and men to find partners. Wadden and Stunkard’s research conclude that “Students revealed that they would rather marry embezzlers, cocaine users, shoplifters, and blind persons than obese individuals. And other people preferred to have handicaps, including missing hands or facial disfigurements, than to be obese” (Qtd in Evelyn 46). Beyond the social effect, there are other types of effects of obesity such as health effects. The health effects of obesity are probably the most important and dangerous of all the effects of obesity, are principally diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart problems and cancer. Type 2 diabetes is defined as a progressive metabolic disorder characterized by insulin resistance, insulin deficiency, and hyperglycemia. This is related to obesity since excess weight can cause resistance to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. When obesity causes insulin resistance, the blood sugar becomes elevated. Even moderate obesity could dramatically increase the risk of diabetes (Keller 79). Another health effect of obesity is that the leading cause of death in the United States for men and women are heart problems, particularly the coronary artery disease (CAD). Is defined as when the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle become hardened, and eventually may become blocked and lead to a coronary event, for example a heart attack. The relationship between this disease and obesity, is that the