You havenât heard? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70 percent of black men and 80 percent of black women are either overweight or obese. Nearly 26 percent of our children between the ages of 6 and 17 are obese. Obesity isnât the sole cause for concern, as we are developing heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol at rates far exceeding our nonblack counterparts.
If you pay close enough attention, the implication is that itâs our fault that weâre fat. Documentaries like Soul Food Junkies lay blame at the feet of the rich dishes weâve eaten since we came to America. And studies like one conducted by researchers at Cardiff University and University of Bristolâwhich aimed to determine why exercise seemed to fail at helping young black girls lose weightâdeclared that, genetically, we process fat inefficiently, implying that our bodies prefer to be fat.
Itâs the old-fashioned pathology that dysfunction is inherently rooted in black culture; our music, our hair, our food, and our bodies are all flawed and need to be fixed. But after years of writing about nutrition, one thing has become clear: This weight thing is not the racial battle weâve been led to believe it is.
Read More: http://uptownmagazine.com/2013/05/the-real-reason-black-america-is-fat/
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