Blacks top ranks among obese in most U.S. states
The Associated Press
Nearly 36 percent of black Americans are obese — much more than other major racial or ethnic groups — and that gap exists in most states, a new federal study finds.
About 29 percent of Hispanics and 24 percent of whites are obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Overall, about 26 percent of U.S. adults are obese.
Racial differences in obesity rates have been reported before, and health officials were not surprised to see larger proportions of blacks tipping the scales.
But the new CDC report is the first to look at the gap state by state, finding blacks had significantly higher obesity rates in 21 states and somewhat higher rates in many others.
Experts believe there are several reasons for the differences. People with lower incomes often have less access to medical care, exercise facilities and more expensive, healthier food. In many places, minorities are disproportionately poor.
“Poverty is a very strong driver of obesity,” said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
Attitudes about weight also are believed to be a factor, said Dr. Liping Pan, a CDC epidemiologist.
Researchers cited a 2008 study that found black and Hispanic women had significantly lower odds of being dissatisfied with their body size than white women.
“Blacks and Hispanics are more accepting of high weight,” Pan said, adding that heavy people who are satisfied with their size are not likely to diet or exercise.
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Were people to read this several decades ago it would likely raise eyebrows as they would be shocked to learn that the ratio of caloric intake to caloric burn wasn't the defining factor in weight gain or loss. Indeed, apparently being able to see a physician, or access to exercise facilities, and high-end food, is the key to maintaining an optimal body profile. Tell that to all the low-income Caucasians who mysteriously manage to keep the pounds off.
And, note how the author asserts that "attitudes about weight" rather than "cultural attitudes about weight" are pre-eminent . If a given culture, be it Americans of African ancestry, Italian, or Croatian, encourages an indifference to body image or an acceptance of unhealthy lifestyles, why not just say it? Are we doing blacks any favors by suggesting that if they can just make their way up the income ladder they could lose weight?
Thanks to liberalism, which has balkanized America by convincing us that ethnicity is dispositive of values and principles, and put the nation on hair-trigger concerning real or imagined ethnic slights--see Sen. Tom Colborn's gross infraction of the left's code with his remark about Sotomayor having some "splanin" to do, a la Ricky Ricardo--we're effectively encouraging a pandemic of victimhood, from a public health and--cultural health--perspective.
That, in turn, invokes the left's strident demands for multicultural re-education programs, a kind of white-guilt act of contrition, which demands scrupulously scripted behavior, lest anyone be held responsible for their imprudent lifestyle choices, or, in the public arena, the inexcusable notion that our ethnic differences should be subsumed under the quaint idea of e pluribus unum.