Obesity exploding among US Hispanics

[Petr]

Amazing statistic:

"In Texas, one in four Hispanic children is obese, vs. one in 10 non-Hispanic white children."

At least you are not starving your minorities to death. Once again a proof on that in the global scale, welfare dependents in Western countries are rich people.

Well, perhaps if they all get fat and unhealthy, they won't be able to fight against gringoes...


http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/9/emw285348.htm


NHMA Teams With HHS to Trim Obesity in Hispanics; NHMA’s National Focus Begins in Texas

Obesity is emptying Texans’ pocketbooks and could cost the state its future – especially among young Hispanics, said the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), which is launching a national campaign in Galveston to reduce obesity among Hispanics.


Galveston, TX (PRWEB) September 15, 2005 -– Obesity is emptying Texans’ pocketbooks and could cost the state its future – especially among young Hispanics, said the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), which is launching a national campaign in Galveston to reduce obesity among Hispanics.

By 2040, Texas will have 14 million obese adults, up from 4 million today, twice as many overweight residents and nearly 3.5 million people with diabetes, up from 1 million. The cost of treating obesity will quadruple – from $10.5 billion today to 40 billion by 2040. In addition, the state's share of Medicaid will nearly triple, to $12.3 billion.

“The fatter the population gets the bigger the problems will become and the more it will cost to solve them,” said Dr. Elena Rios, president of NHMA, a nonprofit organization representing licensed Hispanic physicians in the U.S.

Rios will be the keynote speaker at the ninth annual Hector P. Garcia. M.D. Award Ceremony from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Levin Hall Dining Room at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She will talk about the importance of Hispanic leadership in health care. In addition, Rios will discuss how NHMA members are being encouraged to volunteer their time to work with HHS and the American Red Cross in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

After the luncheon, NHMA will announce its obesity awareness campaign in the Levin Hall auditorium. NHMA will discuss how the organization, its physician-members and the HHS Office of Minority Health are working to improve efforts to reduce obesity among Hispanics. A representative of UTMB also is invited to speak.

Starting with the Galveston launch, NHMA and OMH will promote the campaign in four other places: El Paso, Miami, N.Y. and California. NHMA, collaborating with its Council of Medical Societies, will build networks, share information, educate people through their doctors and work with the media and the government as partners for health.

“Texas and the nation cannot afford to ignore the obesity crisis and its consequences, especially among Hispanics, a fast-growing population that has a prevalence of being obese, which can lead to illness and disease,” Rios said.

“Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases that disproportionately impact minority populations, including heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, and stroke,” said Dr. Garth Graham, HHS deputy assistant secretary for minority health. “To address this epidemic, we need national awareness and participation.”

In Texas, one in four Hispanic children is obese, vs. one in 10 non-Hispanic white children. Two in three adult Texans are overweight or obese – contributing to the state being one of the fattest in the nation. Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Fort Worth are among the top 15 fattest cities in the country.

Nationally, an estimated 129.6 million Americans, or 64 percent, are overweight or obese. Americans born today have a 1 in 3 chance of developing obesity-related diabetes. Among Hispanics, the risk increases to 1 in 2. The economic impact of diabetes alone in the U.S. is about $132 billion annually.

Rios said her focus includes developing a network of physicians and medical students that will work with NHMA and HHS to implement best practices and strategies to decrease the rate of obesity in Hispanic communities, starting with Galveston. NHMA is partnering with HHS to educate patients on diet, nutrition and exercise. Initiatives include prevention, education, public awareness and outreach to bring about a greater understanding of the impact of obesity on other conditions.

“We will begin working with our professional Hispanic health providers to become advocacy in calling attention to elected officials to improve government and school programs so we can curb dangerous obesity rates,” Rios said.

NHMA is also looking for assistance from Hispanic students at the UT Medical Branch at Galveston School of Medicine, where they graduated more Hispanic physicians than any other medical school in the U.S.

Obesity remains a growing problem. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2000 were attributable to obesity and lack of exercise.

“Racial minorities, especially Hispanics, are disproportionately poor and undereducated and therefore suffer more health problems and die younger than other Americans,” Rios said. “A prevalence of cheap fast-food, a lack of safe areas to exercise in their neighborhoods and fatty diets contribute to Hispanics’ increasing waistlines.” Cultural trends – video games, TV and junk food among them – also contribute to the problem.

“Doctors can be staunch advocates for better nutrition and physical activity. They can help identify at-risk and overweight children, educate families about the health consequences of being overweight and help them develop the tools they need for a healthier, longer life,” said Rios. “This is a problem that should include the community and the whole family.”


Established in 1994 in Washington, DC, NHMA is a nonprofit association that represents licensed Hispanic physicians in the U.S. in its mission to improve health care for Hispanics and the underserved. For more information, visit www.nhmamd.org.

# # #

[Lenny]

Hispanics are supposedly genetically predisposed to obesity moreso than white people, which is worsened by the fact their diet is not as good as whites (cultural reasons). And now the problem is worsened further by the advent of video games, those hispanic kids dont have to go outside and play soccer or something to have fun/pass the time, they can stay inside and play games

[Berianidze]

I guess this proves hispanics can and are willing to assimilate into the American lifestyle! :-D

[daisy]

i always thought that flour in those tortillas is fattening
same as the flour in biscuits or ann jemima pancakes.

[Björn]

Suger and flower have countless negative effects if consumed regularly and in high contents. And of course, both are staples in the modern diet.:)

[Petr]

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2006/01/lightening_the_burden.php#


Lightening the Burden

Krissah Williams, Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2006


Last year, 12-year-old Alejandra Rojas acknowledged that she was a little too chubby, or gordita , as her Spanish-speaking mother, Gabriela, would say. At 5-4 and 145 pounds, she was overweight, her pediatrician told her, and at risk of becoming obese.

In their Adams Morgan apartment, Alejandra and her mother slathered their breakfast bagels with butter or cream cheese. The girl’s lunch was usually a Hot Pockets sandwich, followed by chips and cookies.

At dinnertime, Gabriela Rojas, 48, a single mother from El Salvador, cooked mostly pork and red meat and piled their plates with fried yucca, fried plantains and rice. When Gabriela, who is not overweight, was too tired to cook after a long day cleaning houses, she bought her daughter burgers and fries at McDonald’s or fried chicken at Popeye’s.

“I ate whatever I liked, but I was always hungry,” said Alejandra. She also had little energy during gym class. She and her mother have no car but they rarely walked, preferring to take the bus. They hardly ever exercised, Gabriela said, because they did not think it was important.

The Rojases’ experience is common in the U.S. Hispanic population of 41.3 million, where excess weight is a problem. According to the 2005 National Health Interview Survey of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least one of every four Hispanic adults living in the United States is obese, which is defined as having a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or more.

{snip}

A study released in September by the District’s Council of Latino Agencies assessed the health of Washington’s Hispanic community (population 47,258, according to the 2000 Census). The study—which involved 800 Latino adults, 99 percent of whom were recent immigrants—found that 61 percent were overweight or obese.

Community activists now are struggling to change habits that may contribute to this problem, starting with women like Gabriela Rojas.

“We realize that this is an emergency for us,” said Eugenio Arene, executive director of the Latino council. “Mothers are the key informant of our culture and customs, and we tell them, ‘You have a big responsibility in front of you. We are getting overweight, and we have to do something about it.’ “

{snip}

Madeline Wilks, a primary care physician at La Clinica del Pueblo in the Columbia Heights, which serves a largely Latino clientele of more than 5,500 patients a year, thinks some of the answer lies in cultural norms.

“Being a little gordita is almost seen as a positive,” she said. “When people are at an appropriate BMI, they are almost seen as being too skinny.”

That view holds in much of Latin America, where people are familiar with the sight of thin, frail children in impoverished areas, health professionals said. Gabriela Rojas carried that perception and a love of starchy foods with her when she fled El Salvador’s civil war for the District in 1987. She saw no harm in frying food in cupfuls of oil or in feeding Alejandra lots of sweets even as her daughter grew heavy.

{snip}

The lure of fat-laden fast food also gets frequent mention as a cause of weight problems.

It’s not just that fast food presents an easy option for immigrants who “struggle with too much to do, just like anyone else,” says Alejandra’s pediatrician, Rachel Tellez, who works at Unity Health Care’s Upper Cardozo Clinic in Columbia Heights. Some immigrant parents actually take pride in buying their children fast food—a luxury that many could not afford back home, she says.

“I think for a lot of Latino families it is a privilege to provide their families with fast food,” Tellez said. “They could not afford it in their home countries, [and] now they are happy to buy their kids fast food.”

{snip}

Gabriela Rojas said she did not recognize the danger in her family’s diet until Tellez referred her to a free nutrition course sponsored by the Upper Cardozo Clinic and the Capital Area Food Bank. The six-week course, conducted in Spanish and held on Saturdays last year, was designed to help Latino families change habits that may have contributed to the community’s weight problems.

Local chefs, a nutritionist and a clinic volunteer instructed Alejandra and her mother in the basics of healthy eating. At a grocery store, the instructors translated nutrition labels and taught the families to look for foods high in fiber. In the clinic kitchen, Alejandra and her mother were startled to see the chef prepare a chicken dish with only a capful of oil.

{snip}

[raven]

In fact I remember reading some article before being brought up that people typically with low income have higher levels of obesity. It also mentioned that Junk food, crap that isn't good for you, does come relatively cheap actually. I'd say it's true, you can buy all sorts of junk food for a low price. Unfortunately this seems to be an aspect of their culture and as stated before, they are more genetically predisposed to obesity.

[daisy]

the chinese restraunts here are now usually full of hispanics
maybe they will lose some weight eating chinese ?

[raven]

the chinese restraunts here are now usually full of hispanics
maybe they will lose some weight eating chinese ?
Are albinos generally overweight or is it just the muded albinos?

[Atlas]

Fat Americans sue fast food firms

More than half of all adult Americans are overweight

A group of overweight Americans have sued several US fast food giants accusing them of knowingly serving meals that cause obesity and disease.



The lawsuit - filed in New York State Supreme Court in the Bronx - says that McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Kentucky Fried Chicken misled customers by enticing them with greasy, salty and sugary food.

"The fast-food industry has wrecked my life," Caesar Barbar, one of plaintiffs, told the New York Post.

Mr Barbar - a 57-year-old maintenance supervisor who weighs almost 125 kilograms (275 pounds) - said he regularly ate fast food until 1996, when a doctor warned his diet could potentially kill him.

Mr Barbar said he had already had two heart attacks and has been suffering from diabetes.

'Bad eating habits'

"I always thought it was good for you. I never thought there was anything wrong with it," he said.

A recent assessment of obesity in the US found that more than a half of all adult Americans were overweight.

About 54 million adults were classified as obese - that is people who are about 15 kilos or more over the healthy norm based on height - and hundreds of thousands of deaths each year were attributed to obesity-related diseases.

Health groups say one of the biggest culprits for this growing epidemic is junk food, and that the best time to break the cycle between obesity and bad eating habits is when people are young.

Fast food companies - such as McDonald's and Burger King - are currently participating in a campaign urging young Americans to eat a healthier diet.

A spokesman for a restaurant industry group has ridiculed the legal action.

"He must be aware that fully two-thirds of all foods consumed in America are consumed in people's homes. Is he proposing that we sue America's moms?" John Doyle of the Center for Consumer Freedom told ABC News.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2151754.stm

A group of teenagers trying to blame McDonalds for them being fat have failed.
The US kids thought burger chains pretended their food was healthier than it really was.

And they said there wasn't enough information about how bad it could be for your health if you ate it all the time.

'Up to you'

So they went to court and tried to sue.

But the judge said there wasn't enough proof the burgers and fries were addictive.

He also said it was up to people to watch what they ate, and not the responsibility of the law.

Most of the teenagers lived on a daily diet of burgers and fries from the restaurant.



http://www.emailjoke.com/friends.jpg

[Felix the Cat]

Do we know the races of this Barbar guy, and the teenagers?