The higher rates of obesity in Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) compared with other groups in the United States can be attributed in large part to systemic racism, according to a new perspective article published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. The authors offer a 10-point strategy to study and solve the public health issues responsible for this disparity.
Co-author Fatima Cody Stanford and co-author Daniel Aaron note that BIPOC suffer chronic stress from experiencing racism in their environments, which can increase the severity of obesity. Also, BIPOC who want help losing weight have a harder time accessing health care, and when they do, they face real and perceived systemic racism within medicine. Furthermore, marginalized BIPOC are more likely to live in areas with an abundance of stores that sell unhealthy food and a lack of stores offering affordable, nutritious options. Even with access to supermarkets, processed food is usually cheaper than fruits or vegetables, and processed food companies engage in disproportionate marketing towards BIPOC.
The perspective article stresses that addressing obesity’s disproportionate harm to BIPOC will involve changes to public health organizations, medical and research institutions, governments and corporations. ”Rather than push for educational campaigns and attempts to ’enlighten’ minorities, we should instead look to increased liability and scrutiny of those who aggressively market unhealthy food to BIPOC and concentrate their establishments in BIPOC communities. And we must aim to provide BIPOC access to the same rights: to money, healthy food, medical care, housing, education and freedom from discrimination,” says Aaron.
Aaron and Stanford aim to stir more thoughtful and transformative policy approaches that place the onus on powerful parties that benefit from existing arrangements and on people and institutions that are hesitant to change–not on the victims of systemic racism. They offer a 10-point strategy towards this goal.
”The implications could have far-reaching effects on well-being, as obesity is associated with more than 200 chronic diseases, many of which disproportionately affect BIPOC, and it’s a risk factor for contracting and dying from COVID-19,” says Stanford. ”The immense costs – to lives, health, and wealth – of not preventing and treating obesity are exacerbated for BIPOC, and we urgently need to study and solve the core issues at the intersection of obesity and systemic racism.”
Source: EurekAlert!
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