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Ok so before any of our African American female readers start with the “I knew there was a reason I wasn’t losing weight!” comments or the “I guess it doesn’t matter whether I work out or not!” revelations, let’s unscrew the proverbial light bulbs over our heads and take a deeper look into these findings.  However, before we go there, let’s also look at some of the statistics that we already know about black women’s health and nutrition in relation to our white female counterparts.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, in 2010, black women were 70 percent more likely to be obese than white women, and that number only grows for adolescents of our ethncity. From 2007-2010, black girls were 80 percent more likely to be obese than white girls. Furthermore, four out of five black women are overweight or obese, and African Americans were 70 percent less likely to exercise than white people in 2010.  YIKES!!!!  It’s clear that in the past the odds have definitely been against us, and this is a problem because a greater risk of obesity can put black girls at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke etc! So now that we know what we’re up against, let’s delve into this new information!

Published in the June 2012 issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, this particular study performed by British researchers, Dr. James White of Cardiff University and Dr. Russell Jago of the University of Bristol, followed and observed 1148 adolescent girls (538 black and 610 white) between the ages of 12 and 14. The girls’ level of physical activity and food intake was recorded over three-day periods, and the amount of time girls spent sitting and watching television was also measured in addition to their body mass index and fat percentages.  White and Jago’s study results found that the black girls in the group with the most physical activity were only 15 percent less likely to be obese by age 14 when compared to the group of black girls who exercised the least, and when it came to white girls, the active group was 85 percent less likely to have weight problems in comparison to the inactive group.

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