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Obesity, Lifestyles and African Americans - What Are the Correlations

In: Social Issues

Submitted By coachpennick
Words 1240
Pages 5
Author: Makeisha Lee, Black Health Consultant
Title: Obesity, Lifestyles and African-Americans – What are the Correlations?
Publication / Internet Site: http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/african/family_lifestyle_traditions/bpr_obesity1127.asp Date: N/A Issue: IMDiversity

Body: Makeisha Lee, Black health consultant in this article speaks to us as African-Americans about having the right balance of foods in our lives. The article goes on to explain that eating is one life’s greatest pleasures. We human beings enjoy the smell of good food, the taste of good food, the texture, as well as how it makes us feel when it goes down, so food can be very pleasurable but it can also be very dangerous if not kept in its proper balance.

As Ms. Lee said earlier we can enjoy food but the primary job for food is to nourish our bodies. The nutrients that we get from the foods help our bodies to sustain life, health as well as strength. When we don’t have the right balance of foods that are bodies, ( mind-body and emotion) gets all a lot of whack. If you don’t have the right balance of food and have adequate exercise you end up with, “Obesity”. A definition for obesity is the intake of food overpowering the needed exercise in order to keep the weight down.
Obesity is more common in African Americans than any other ethnic group. Let’s take a closer look to see why this is.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of vital health statistics, 16.1% of African-American males are overweight and 78% of black women leave the population in obesity and being moderately overweight. Ms. Lee, said these were astounding facts and wanted to look a little bit deeper and order to get a solution as well as identify the major problems to why this was.

Ms. Lee, identified three major problems within the African-American population. The first is culture, the second

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