Posted on 05/28/2009 5:16:42 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Perceptions of racism -- from being treated with suspicion in a store to unfairness in employment or housing -- can heighten stress levels and affect health, research has shown. A new study from Boston University links these smoldering signs of racism to weight gain in black women, suggesting a possible explanation for the their higher obesity rates compared to white women.
Yvette Cozier, an epidemiologist at the Slone Epidemiology Center at BU, led a survey of more than 43,000 women enrolled in the long-running Black Women's Health Study. Writing in the June issue of Annals of Epidemiology, she and her co-authors describe participants' reports on their weight, body mass index, and perceptions of racism.
At the beginning of the eight-year study, the women were asked if they sometimes felt they were treated poorly in a restaurant or store, whether they thought people considered them dishonest or less intelligent, and if they had felt unfairness on the job, in housing, or from police. The women, 21 to 69 years old at the study's outset, were placed in four groups based on how frequently they said they experienced these signs of racism. Their weight was recorded every two years from 1997 through 2005. Their waist circumference was measured at the beginning and end.
At the end of the trial, all the women had gained weight. But the women who said they felt higher levels of racism gained more weight and had bigger waist-size increases compared to the women who felt the least racism. That held true after accounting for factors such as education, geographic region, and beginning body mass index.
"Racism is real and it has real effects," Cozier said in an interview. "It can result in real changes in the body."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Oh, my goodness, a racist attack!
Life leads to weight gain, in many people. As they get older, they become both wiser and wider.
I’m tired of stupid people trying to sound smart, like the authors of this “study”.
YAWN. Now its my fault that some black folk are fat. Another day another racist charge....it is sooooooooooooo boring.
If the gubmint were paying for my food, I’d be a fat slob, too.
[I see how a large majority of them “pay” for their 3 carts full of junk food and delicacies that I could never afford at Wal-Mart so don’t even bother yelling about “prejudice”]
Zot me if you like.
I no longer care.
This is news!!...here I was thinking it was GW’s fault
This study is confounded so many ways it’s amazing Ms. Cozier was willing to show her face long enough to present it. I can easily interpret the data a completely different way, to wit: the women who were most likely to see “racism” in every action or event, and to have the greatest sense of entitlement, were also the women most likely to have low intelligence and poor eating habits. Both the perceived higher incidence of racism and the weight gain are symptoms of the underlying cause.
Have any studies been done on excessive weight gain in patriotic Americans caused by anxiety over the direction the Marxist Obama is taking the country?
as it was about perceived racism rather than documented racism, it seems a large chip on your shoulder makes you weight more. Who’d u thunk it?
I’m 5’10”, 147 lbs of this writing. Guess how much racism I perceive?
Maybe the perceived racism these people experienced was actually disgust due to their obesity.
Hi Salamander... I saw a thread on living in Maryland and wondered how you were surviving...
On weight and race, I think maybe genetics might have something to do with it....
hh
Other than overwhelming feelings of impending doom and despair, I’m just peachy....:)
We’re really far from “the front” and things superficially don’t really seem different any different here.
If it weren’t for FR, I’d probably be blissfully unaware that anything was “off”.
Thanks for asking....;D
Our business is finally picking up again and I know that some FReepers have prayed for us after I mentioned here that it was on the verge of failing, so I’d like to publicly thank God and those praying FReepers.
Who do I whine to about all the “hillbilly”/”hick”/”redneck”/”Mick” jokes and stereotypes?
I want ~my~ cut of the “perceived” action.
“Weight gain”?!?
I’ve lost 7 pounds that I can ill-afford to lose.
At 5’ 4’, 105 pounds is not particularly “ideal” or healthy, especially when I was always a muscular, “stocky” farm girl.
Some people eat from stress, others starve.
Every time you are mean to a minority, a Little Debbie snack cake gets teleported directly into his or her stomach. When will the injustice end? Perceived prejudice probably also causes illegals to drive drunk. Damn white devils!
If I were 5’ 10”, I would rule the world.....;-D
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