Overweight and Obesity among African-American Adults
The WHO defines obesity and overweight as excessive or abnormal fat accumulation that impairs health, and they use the Body Mass Index (BMI) to classify obesity and overweight in adults. Obesity in adults is a BMI greater than or equal to 30, while overweight in adults is a BMI greater than or equal to 25. About 4 out of 5 African American women are overweight or obese; thus, they have the US’s highest obesity rate than any other group. Statistics show that 70.6% of the non-Hispanic black male adults are overweight, while 80.6% non-Hispanic black women adults are overweight. Statistics also show that 38% of the non-Hispanic black male adults are obese, while 56% of the non-Hispanic black female adults are obese. Most scholars attribute African Americans’ high obesity rate to have originated from the slave era, contributing to the current diet. During this era, the slaves ate leftover food like pig intestines, chicken, meat, etc. left by their owners; thus, this diet has been maintained through the community. As the African Americans try to uphold their roots and generations, the diet passed from generation to generation has heavily impacted the community’s unhealthy conditions.
Lower social, economic status has also attributed to being overweight and obese among the African American community since most individuals experience poor nutrition, bad working conditions and social environments, inadequate housing, and limited contact or access to the healthcare systems. Healthier foods are expensive; thus, most low-income earners cannot afford to eat healthy foods recommended by the government, resulting in faster and less costly, unhealthy foods. There is also limited access to healthy foods in the African American communities. For example, in Washington, the low-income African American wards have one supermarket for every 70,000 individuals, while high-income neighborhoods have one supermarket for 11,900 individuals. There are many other reasons; the presence of many fast foods in their communities compared to other communities, African Americans do not have time to cook healthy foods since they are usually busy working, they do not engage in most active physical activities, and they are still following the African culture that bigger people indicate wealth and being the breadwinner.
Although obesity is associated with many chronic and lifestyle diseases, scholars have understudied weight loss treatment for African Americans, especially women, until designing the Obesity Reduction Black Intervention Trial (ORBIT) program. ORBIT is a controlled trial aimed at assessing the efficacy of maintenance interventions and culturally proficient weight loss among obese black women. The trial’s expected outcome is weight loss maintenance, weight change, and changes in energy usage and intake. The trial teaches participants and others to reduce their energy intake and increase their energy usage, creating an energy imbalance that produces and maintains weight loss. It also teaches that African Americans should recognize and incorporate beliefs, practices, and attitudes to ensure weight loss programs are successful. They should also use alternative meals that reduce caloric content without sacrificing any flavors and increase their physical activity goals, which they should work hard to accomplish.
African‐American Collaborative Obesity Research Network (AACORN) also provides African American adults with information on reducing obesity and overweight by researching relevant sectors. The network’s main aim is to ensure a healthy weight, high quality of life, and freedom from obesity-related problems for African American communities.
Americans. AACORN members offer the community and public health, nutritional epidemiology, physical activity, and exercise science epidemiology, diabetes management, community-based participatory research, and cardiovascular disease prevention.
The US government has implemented the CDC’s nutrition and physical activity program to prevent obesity and chronic diseases in individuals from different states. The federal government funds the program, wherein 2005, and the states received $16.2 million, which help them evaluate and develop their obesity prevention strategic plans. AACORN has also been able to disseminate valuable strategies that emphasize family-based and policy-level interventions that improve the contexts of maintaining and developing a healthy weight. The research findings have urged the government to induce policy intervention that handles the obesity issue, especially to the African American communities. The policy interventions have also helped communities with the lowest sense of collective efficacy and purpose of self-empowerment. AACORN has increased its community based and qualitative research with the African American community to understand the priorities, underlying perceptions, and issues, which has helped them gain the information measure and design a successful program.
AACORN has also been able to determine the extent to which activity, food, and weight-related behaviors belonging to African American communities are influenced by local food availability and targeted marketing. The research has also shown that African Americans should exhibit effective food choice decisions and change their buying power perceptions. ORBIT program has designed effective weight loss approaches that can appeal to obese African American individuals’ motivations and perspectives in their communities. They have also designed and evaluated weight control and weight loss strategies used in the social dynamics, settings and be successful in African American families.
In the CDC’s nutrition and physical activity program, the CDC provided tools and technical assistance that helped states develop and evaluate their strategic plans that promote obesity prevention. The CDC hired staff who technical assistance and program oversight to the states, thus ensuring that they follow the federal government’s entire project guideline. The state provided that the program was successful by involving partner organizations in implementing and planning interventions that helped improve the BMI in adults and children in the African American community and the entire country. ORBIT program used 200 black women, where they advised them on the best way to prevent being obese and encourage a healthy lifestyle, which will keep away health issues. They urged the participants to adopt a high fiber, a low-fat diet with many vegetables and fruits. They were also advised to increase their physical activity daily by exercising 3-4 times weekly for at least 30 minutes. AACORN has helped individuals determine the effects of excess weight gain attributed to cancer treatments, which affects the quality of life and may lead to cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and recurrence of cancer. The program is also focusing on increasing their research to clarify both targets for community processes and structural change, thus ensuring weight control.
In conclusion, more researchers should step up and ensure that there is the availability of information, which will give the African American community more knowledge to know how to handle their bodies and ensure they are not overweight. The government should also increase its efforts in developing more programs that will help African American communities and their neighborhoods live a healthy lifestyle preventing diseases.