Obesity in African Americans

Obesity is one of the leading causes of death in Americans. The highest ranked out of all Americans is African Americans. The eating habits of African Americans are becoming very hazardous and if it is not controlled it will kill them. For centuries, African Americans have been eating poorly. It is dated all the way back to the 16th century when slavery was around. Slaves (African Americans) did everything, especially the cooking. When it came to the foods that they ate, they were given the left over parts from the animals that there owner did not want. These parts were not the most nutritional parts of the animals and to top it off they used a lot of lard to cook it. Till this day, they are still going the same way. They don’t really use lard anymore, now they mostly prefer to use cooking oil or butter.

Though, the bad eating habits came about long ago; one of the contributions for it today is the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate for blacks is very high. As of November 2012, the unemployment rate for African Americans has been 14.3%, which is the highest of all Americans living in the U.S. Due to this big decline in employment for African Americans, they are buying the cheaper foods, which happen to be the more fattening foods. The prices for the more organic foods (healthier foods) are pretty pricy for these unemployed people. The foods that they can afford, may not be the healthiest, but they are the most affordable for them.

Obesity is the highest ranked for African Americans, but out of all African Americans women are the highest. When women are pregnant they tend to eat a lot, mostly because now they are eating for more than one person. According to Rachel Zimmerman, the diet of women is not the only contribution to obesity. Motherhood happens to also, play a significant part in the obesity of African American women. Zimmerman stated that African American women who have children young, are overweight at the time of pregnancy, or gain an excess amount of weight during pregnancy have a higher prevalence