Big Boned Kids and Childhood Obesity: The New Crisis in Black America
by Angela Scott

Overweight children are the new victims of heart attacks, Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Those big Sunday meals of fried chicken, ham hocks and greens, hot water cornbread, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams and apple pie doesn’t end there. It carries over into the weekday super-size meal rush of deluxe double cheeseburgers, french fries, sugar cookies and 42-ounce sodas. For a kid who’s a couch potato and hates to walk to the bathroom – let alone participate in P.E. at school, it’s slow suicide – waiting to happen.

In the United States at least one child in five is overweight and the number of overweight children continues to grow, according to a report published by the American Association of Pediatrics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention goes a step further, estimating nearly 25 percent of U.S. children and teens labeled overweight are either black or Hispanic. Disturbing?

Does the term “big-boned” fit snugly within the rise in Type 2 diabetes and hypertension among school-age blacks? Your physician can let you know if your child is overweight or at risk for being overweight by performing an examination to determine the BMI or Body Mass Index of your child.

“BMI is a ratio of weight to height, and is adjusted in children for age and gender. If a child has a BMI of greater than or equal to the 95th percentile for his or her age and sex, then he or she is considered to be overweight,” says Dr. Judith Weber, a registered dietician and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. A child with a BMI rate greater than or equal to the 85th percentile is considered to be at risk for overweight and/or obesity, according to Weber, who’s studied childhood obesity for nearly 10 years. She attributes bad food choices, economics and maintaining a sedentary as factors greatly contributing to the rise of childhood obesity among minorities.

As with most busy parents, finding time to prepare and eat dinner together is wishful thinking when you add factors consisting of parents working overtime, latchkey households and families struggling to afford daily meals. Thoughts of following the food pyramid and eating nutritiously fly out the window. The quick answer: Stop by the local fast food joint on the way home. Unfortunately, choosing high-calorie fast foods is not a healthy habit that black parents should continue. Changing the behaviors in black parents also presents its own set of challenges, according to Dr. Jim Annesi, director of wellness advancement for the Metro Atlanta YMCA in Georgia.

“We’re doing the best we can in modifying the behaviors of the parents in terms of nutrition. It’s a little worse here than in the country as a whole because of the fried foods,” says Annesi. As the director for Youth Fit for Life, Annesi is in charge of the effect of treatment on the more 2,000 children involved in the Atlanta-based child obesity prevention program. He says that meeting with parents who do not always acknowledge their child’s overweight issue is the beginning step towards childhood obesity prevention.

Youth Fit for Life is designed for ages 5 to 12 who meet weekly in 45 after-school sites supervised by counselors in a series of programs designed to address the mental and physical aspects of healthy living. From learning helpful “self-talk” to learning physical games that can be done in the home, kids work in groups to help one another develop their own ideas on how to approach physical activity.

“They learn how to deal with barriers and how to do something constructive when unable to go outside with friends. We also teach them goal setting, where we train them how to write down their goals and measure their success [self-monitoring],” says Annesi. He says through social games, Youth Fit for Life can “lock a definite behavior change in children” in order to help get them end their sedentary habits, as well as teach them to make better food choices.

Roadmap to Childhood Obesity
In 1995, Dr. Judith Weber began a 7-year project, monitoring obesity among American Indian Nations in America. As co-investigator at the University of Arizona, she helped research the Pathways Study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. This obesity intervention study was conducted at five universities: University of Arizona, University of New Mexico, University of Northern New Mexico, John Hopkins University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Seven American Indian nations across the U.S. were tested with approximately 1,700 children in 41 schools, with 21 controlled groups and 20 intervention groups in a randomized trial.

“We already knew that American Indian populations within the U.S. adult and child populations had higher rates of obesity than all other populations, and has one of the highest rates of Type 2 diabetes in the world, with Type 2 being a factor from obesity,” says Weber.

The Pathways Study created an actual scientific paradigm, which researchers used to educate American Indian families about the importance of exercise and eating nutritiously. From sending home family packs of nutritious snacks to implementing physical activity-based curriculum at the American Indian Nation schools, Weber and her team of researchers attempted to reduce the fat content intake, as well as increase physical activity among the school-age children. A 4-year follow-up study of kids, ages 8 to 10, titled The Energy Expenditure Diet and Body Fat in Children, revealed that although American Indian families learned prevention skills, behavioral change was limited due to combinations of cultural and economic factors.



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