by Raisa Camargo
As the economy continues to struggle, obesity rates are climbing for people of color.
A study published last summer shows nationwide obesity rates escalating in most southern states, and experts cite financial hardship as a contributing factor.
The ‘F’ as in Fat Report: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010, released in June by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shows national obesity rates have increased in 28 states during the past year.
In Latino communities, lacking access to nutritional foods coupled with affordability is a determining factor of an unhealthy lifestyle. This trend is correlated with poverty.
The TFAH has published the report annually for seven years, but this is the first year the report includes statistics based on ethnicity.
The rate of adult obesity for African Americans is higher than 30 percent in 43 states and above that figure for Latinos in 19 states. Ten of the 11 states with the highest rates of diabetes are in the south, as are the 10 states with the highest hypertension rates. Southern states also have the lowest rates of physical activity.
“The rates of Hispanic obesity should be a call to action,” says Jason Llorenz, senior policy advisor at the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators. “There are folks that are so morbidly obese that they will not get on a scale.”
The Washington, D.C.- based National Council of La Raza reports 41 percent of Hispanics lack basic health literacy, while a 2008 census reported one third of Latinos have no health insurance.
The TFAH reports income inequality as a primary factor related to obesity, noting that 35.3 percent of adults who earn less than $15,000 per year are obese. Of adults who earn $50,000 or more, 24.5 percent are obese. TFAH senior research associate Serena Vinter observes that those states that have higher education levels have lower obesity rates.
Tennessee , whichranks ninth nationally among states with the lowest average income, has the highest obesity rate among Latinos – 39 percent.
A lack of resources like money, recreational facilities or grocery stores contributes to sedentary lifestyles in low-income areas, says Juan Canedo, director of Progreso Community Center, a grassroots Hispanic organization in Nashville. Not everyone can afford to buy healthier food, he says, and crime in lowincome areas impacts residents’ level of activity.
Jennifer Ng’andu, the deputy director of NCLR’s Health Policy Project, said a lack of affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in communities where major food markets are absent – usually in impoverished areas – leads to increased consumption of unhealthy fast foods among Latinos.
“I don’t think people are addressing the root causes of obesity in the Latino community,” Ng’andu said. Steps are being taken to combat the obesity epidemic, including a nutritional policy that targets junk food, Tennessee’s Health Commissioner Susan Cooper said.
“We acknowledge it’s a problem,” she says. “But there’s not one policy that can change this overnight.” Hispanic Link.
