African Americans face obesity crises

Numbers continue to grow

At the California Legislative Black Caucus third annual conference held recently, Dr. Willie Goffney of the American Cancer Society warned that although obesity has become a national problem, African Americans are the fastest growing group suffering from high obesity numbers.

“Nearly 76% of African Americans are overweight,” said Dr. Goffney, who noted that obesity contributes to cancer risks.

“Obesity contributes to uterine, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas and kidney cancer,” said Goffney. “Obesity accounts for 14% of deaths in men and 20% of the cancer deaths in women,” added the doctor, who said that nationally, there are 90,000 deaths caused by cancer each year.

Goffney said the primary reason that many Americans, including African Americans, become obese is because most report that they have no time for physical activity.

“Upwards of 32% of African Americans said they could not fit exercise into their schedules, because they were too busy. We also found that African American women were more likely than men to be physically inactive, while only 21.4% of Whites reported no leisure time for physical activity,” Goffney said.

He cited some startling statistics about physically inactive African Americans in primarily Black sections of the county. “Countywide, we found that 41% of the residents were physically inactive. In Compton, 45% of African Americans are overweight. In South Los Angeles, it’s 40%, and in Inglewood, it’s 46%.”

Goffney said that there are myriad reasons why African-American obesity statistics are soaring. “There’s a lack of high-end grocery stores which means we don’t have a high availability of healthy food,” Goffney observed. “We have Burger King, KFC and Popeyes, which are all high fat and high in calories and guaranteed to make you fat.

“We must encourage African Americans to eat properly and exercise,” said Goffney, who urged African Americans to pursue a physically active lifestyle, to stay away from alcoholic beverages and to try to maintain a healthy weight.

“We should all exercise at least 30 minutes a day at least five days a week,” Goffney advised.