Hispanics and Obesity – The Worrying Truth
What is the link between Hispanics and obesity? Are people of Hispanic origin more prone to obesity than others?
Respected Hispanic trend watcher Jaun G Tornoe feels there is enough anecdotal and scientific data supporting the link between Hispanics and obesity to raise warning flags?
One of the culprits he identifies is the huge choice of cheap, fast food and sugary drinks on offer to newly arrived Latino immigrants, many of whom come from extremely deprived backgrounds?
Fast Foods and Obesity – a Warning From a Friend…
In a recent blog, Tornoe recounts how, as a new immigrant himself, a friend had warned him of this danger…
“(He) told me right after I moved into the U.S. to be careful with the junk food… He noticed that many new immigrants went crazy with the excessive food offerings this country offers.
“If they are not careful, they will watch their waistline be a victim of over choice in just a couple of months.”
Victims of Good Intentions…
Second and third generation Hispanic families are also at risk. Ironically, they’re largely victims of their parents’ good intentions.
“Generally speaking, back in Latin America, a chubby baby or little kid is the obvious sign of healthiness (compared with the unfortunate scars malnutrition leaves on many persons South of the Border),” writes Torno.
“What better way for parents to feel like they are doing a good job taking care of their offspring, than to show all those around them their chubby kids? then the bad eating habits just take control over the little kid’s life and all the adversities obesity brings begin to show up in the kid’s life.”
The “Bigger is Better” Myth
This point is reinforced by an article in another authoritative source of Hispanic news, Hispanicbusiness.com?
"It doesn’t do to tell a mother her chubby baby isn’t healthy and to cut the fat early for a lifetime of health.
“We have to change the perceptions of a community where the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are overweight and don’t consider that a problem… We need to help the community see that bigger isn’t necessarily better," says the article.
Hispanics are Not Alone
It’s worth mentioning that Hispanics are not alone in this. In my home country, South Africa, many of my countrymen and women struggle with obesity and its associated ills, like diabetes and heart disease.
The chief culprit is the readily available processed food and the rapid spread of fast food outlets. The past decade has brought long-awaited political freedom and increasing prosperity. The flipside is a growing obesity problem.
In people for whom poverty and near starvation still loom large, combating the “bigger is better” myth is extremely difficult.
Research into Hispanics and Obesity links
There have also been several academic studies of Hispanics and obesity. A survey conducted in May 2004 for Kellogg by La Opini?n/El Diario de la Prensa Market Research Center, shows Latino families not exercising at recommended levels resulting in rising obesity rates among them.
Hispanics and obesity links are also under the spotlight in a five-year study at the University of Texas at El Paso. UTEP has received a $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study and reduce health disparities among Hispanics.
The five-year grant will establish the Center for the Advancement of Minority Health and Health Disparities Research at UTEP. The grant will also help recruit and train faculty and will be used to disseminate research results to the community.
So while its clear that Latino Obesity is a large and growing problem, there is also growing awareness of the problem.
Alan Cooper is a journalist with 20 year’s experience and the publisher of ObesityCures.com, a site with the ambitious aim of being a “one-stop-shop” for impartial information on obesity and weight loss solutions – including fad diets, prescription weightloss pills, natural weightloss aides, and the link between fast foods and obesity.
For more on hispanics and obesity, and related issues, including links to the sources quoted in this article, visit ObesityCures.com/hispanics-and-obesity.html
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Fat Lady in a Thin Body: WLS Patients Feel Like Imposters
Every weight loss surgery patient I’ve met said they at sometime during the weight loss experience felt like a fraud. A fraud is someone who pretends to be what they are not, an imposter. Given this definition, of course we feel like a fraud! Almost overnight we become the exact opposite of what we have been for many years. We are in fact a fat person masquerading in a thin body. Of course we feel like a fraud!
Weight loss following gastric bypass is so fast and consistent; there is no time to pause and become familiar with ourselves as our size diminishes and our health improves. So, while the body adjusts to its new healthy weight, our mind is slow to catch up. It still sees a fat person and this smaller body is alien and unknown. It is an imposter. A disguise. A fraud.
Be assured, this phase of fraud is normal and consistent among people experiencing rapid massive weight loss, it is part of the transformation. Be comforted knowing feelings of fraud will pass. As we become familiar with our down-sized dimensions the haunts from our morbidly obese days will pass. If a bariatric patient after several years of successful weight maintenance rapidly regained the weight they would feel as much a fraud in their new super-sized body as they did in their newly trimmed body. Feelings of fraud are certain to result when a change is as rapid and effective as gastric bypass weight loss.
For many patients, a different feeling of fraud is manifest when others start to notice and comment about the weight loss. In addition to managing our own feelings of change, we must manage feedback from others, much of which is unsolicited. Patients who have kept their surgery private feel fraudulent when they answer "I’m losing weight by eating less, controlling my sugar and fat intake and exercising" all of which is true. Patients who speak openly about their weight loss surgery may be told surgery was easy way out of obesity. They may hear about surgeries gone bad, get the warnings about regaining the weight, and be treated to a host of other myths. This feedback can cause us to feel fraudulent.
One weight loss patient said it best: "what I find both interesting and sad about bariatric patients: we are ashamed when we are fat, and we are ashamed when we do something about it." It is not fraudulent to be medically treated for a disease that is killing you. The weight loss surgery patient who accepts this as fact successfully overcomes feeling like a fraud. That patient celebrates the miracle of modern medicine and a second chance at living.
I used to tell my husband, "I’m nothing but a fat lady masquerading in small clothes." He didn’t like me to talk that way about myself and asked, "if your best friend succeeded at losing weight – by whatever means medically available to her – would you talk to her the way you are talking to yourself? If your best friend were treated for a life-threatening disease with the best medical science has to offer would you say she was a fraud for undergoing that treatment to save her life?" He made an excellent point.
I no longer feel like a fraud, but I miss the wonder and awe that was associated with the newness of rapid and massive weight loss. During that time I was shocked to see my own reflection and awed by the little clothes that fit me. I studied in wonder every body part, the way it moved and felt and looked. I counted my ribs and rolled my fingers over my hipbones – I’d never felt that before discovering the miracle of the human skeleton. Nowadays it’s all commonplace: this is who I am. It is no longer a surprising shock. I no longer feel like a fraud.
Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of LivingAfterWLS.com and livingafterwls.blogspot.com – Fresh & insightful content is added daily, check in often.
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