"Ism" and Obesity...

Can Racism Lead to Weight Gain?
By Daryl C. Hannah, Diversity Inc.
http://www.diversityinc.com/public/5944.cfm

Can racism--whether real or perceived--be the cause of high obesity rates in Black women? That's what some scientists at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University are suggesting after their eight-year study showed a correlation between perceived racism and weight gains.

"Racism is real and it has real effects," Yvette Cozier, an epidemiologist with Slone, said in an interview. "It can result in real changes in the body."

Cozier and her team monitored 43,000 Black women between the ages 21 and 69 from 1997 through 2005. Scientists grouped the women into four categories based on how frequently they said they experienced racism. The scientists then observed their weight and waist-line fluctuations every two years. At the conclusion of the experiment, all of the women gained weight. But those who said they experienced racism most frequently gained more weight and had the biggest waist lines.

"We are learning more and more about the mind-body connection and the impact of perceptions of discrimination, whether they be large episodes or these micro-insults on a day-to-day basis, including walking down the street and having somebody cross over the street" to avoid you, said Dr. Joseph Betancourt, director of the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, in The Boston Globe. "Discrimination turns into stress, and it can have an incredible impact on the body."


What's the direct link? Slone scientists conclude that heightened stress levels can lead to hormone-level changes, influencing poor food choices. "That makes an association between the stress of racism and weight gain, particularly around the waist, fit with other research in humans and animals," the authors wrote.

Weight discrimination has increasingly become a workplace issue. Because obesity isn't covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, weight isn't considered a protected characteristic..

But despite the large number of people impacted, numerous studies have found that overweight and obese people have more difficulty getting hired, earn less and still face being ridiculed on the job. The bottom line: In a society where physical appearance is often subconsciously connected to performance, if you're obese, you're often perceived as not being up to getting the job done.

"We found that the heavier you were, the more likely it was you would submit a worker-compensation claim," Dr. Truls Ostbye, a professor of community and family medicine who coauthored the study, told Diversity Inc.

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http://www.diversityinc.com/public/5944.cfm