A new national study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms what many within the Black community have been saying for years; there is a direct correlation between lower-income living and obesity. Statistic gathered by the CDC report 36% of the Black population is obese, with Maine surprisingly ranking first in the state with the most obese Black citizens.
The reason for this disturbing results varies from expert to expert, with most agreeing on one key trend among those surveyed, a lack of workable income directly contributed to the rise of corpulence within the community. Those who rely on low income living to get by often do not have access to the proper medical care, exercise facilities, and or healthy food choices; large numbers of minorities still fall within the realm of poverty. The report also unveiled an intangible often unspoken on in mainstream medicine: attitude.
Thinking about bodily appearance and the stigmas that associated with weight vary from culture to culture. A 2008 study found that women of Black and Hispanic descent were more likely to be dissatisfied with their body size than any other ethnic group. The group most likely to have bodily image issues unastoundingly being white women.
Dr. Liping Pan, a CDC epidemiologist and chief identifier of the correlation between thinking and obesity, contributed heavily to the CDC study and offered a simple justification in a special CDC publication that came out earlier this week. Entitled “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,” the good doctor justified his research in a simple statement, “Black and Hispanics are more accepting of high weight… heavy people who are satisfied with their size are not likely to diet or exercise.”
The data comes from a national telephone survey of more than 1 million Americans over the years 2006 through 2008.
