Why Black Women Are Fat
Surprisingly politically incorrect op-ed in The New York Times by Alice Randall:
Too many experts who are involved in the discussion of obesity don't understand something crucial about black women and fat: many black women are fat because we want to be.The black poet Lucille Clifton's 1987 poem "Homage to My Hips" begins with the boast, "These hips are big hips." She establishes big black hips as something a woman would want to have and a man would desire. She wasn't the first or the only one to reflect this community knowledge. Twenty years before, in 1967, Joe Tex, a black Texan, dominated the radio airwaves across black America with a song he wrote and recorded, "Skinny Legs and All." One of his lines haunts me to this day: "some man, somewhere who'll take you baby, skinny legs and all." For me, it still seems almost an impossibility.
Chemically, in its ability to promote disease, black fat may be the same as white fat. Culturally it is not.
How many white girls in the '60s grew up praying for fat thighs? I know I did. I asked God to give me big thighs like my dancing teacher, Diane. There was no way I wanted to look like Twiggy, the white model whose boy-like build was the dream of white girls. Not with Joe Tex ringing in my ears.
How many middle-aged white women fear their husbands will find them less attractive if their weight drops to less than 200 pounds? I have yet to meet one.
But I know many black women whose sane, handsome, successful husbands worry when their women start losing weight. My lawyer husband is one.
Unfortunately, Alice and the evidence-based science of weight loss have not been introduced. She writes:
I have my own personal program: walk eight miles a week, sleep eight hours a night and drink eight glasses of water a day.
Memo to Alice: Per Gary Taubes' "Why We Get Fat," it is carbohydrates -- sugar, flour, starchy vegetables like potatoes, apple juice -- that cause the insulin secretion that puts on fat.
Gary Taubes on why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner--and why we're wrong.
That's because Alice doesn't WANT to make the connection. If she actually wanted to be thin, she might have already found out about Dr. Taubes by now.
Play me
mpetrie98 at May 7, 2012 12:08 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/07/why_black_women.html#comment-3178478">comment from mpetrie98Problem is when the rest of us have to pay for the effects.
Amy Alkon at May 7, 2012 12:20 AM
I work with a few black women and all are proud to be fat and have some saying about meat being for men and bones for dogs. One of them always says that diets are for white girls. I don't think they'd care if you told them the proper way to eat to be thin and healthy because they truly enjoy veing fat and think they are supposed to be that way.
BunnyGirl at May 7, 2012 12:34 AM
Alice is pretty great, and she tells it like it is. She doesn't live ina food desert, either.
KateC at May 7, 2012 6:30 AM
She did say why, not how.
I know there's black people on http://forum.lowcarber.org/
There are also a few people on there who have low carbed for years and still weigh 300-400 pounds, mostly sticking to it for the health benefits.
nonegiven at May 7, 2012 7:03 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/07/why_black_women.html#comment-3178736">comment from nonegivenThere are also a few people on there who have low carbed for years and still weigh 300-400 pounds, mostly sticking to it for the health benefits.
Dr. Michael Eades ( http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/ ) has talked to me about how he thinks your metabolism can get "broken" at a certain point. Also, people are biologically different. Gregg can look at a cracker and put on a pound. I have a much better tolerance for fast carbohydrates, although I no longer eat them.
Amy Alkon at May 7, 2012 7:24 AM
Almost every darker skin ethnicity likes women bigger. Hispanics don't go for skinny, either. Skinny is a white thing.
I don't know why. Hubby is hispanic, and while I'll never be anything that could be considered fat, my hips have had 4 kids and are always going to have a curve in them. He likes that.
momof4 at May 7, 2012 9:03 AM
All exercise does is improve muscle tone. And cause hunger. Any weight lost is mostly water, and will be replenished when you drink water until your thirst is satiated.
Also, this is why most black women frighten me: they outweigh me.
I R A Darth Aggie at May 7, 2012 9:20 AM
The point of the article is not "oh my, how will ever lose all this weight?", it is that losing weight is now a racial thing. That blows my mind. Really? I think now I have heard it all.
Sheep mommy at May 7, 2012 9:22 AM
Sorry...should have been "how will I lose all this weight".
Sheep mommy at May 7, 2012 9:24 AM
seems like just another excuse in serach of the ability to differentiate themselves... similar to the not doing well in school to avoid seeming too white...
Just because this is a cultural thing, doesn't mean it should be continued. Should we make diabetes a cultural thing too? Do you wanna die young of it? Or have all the associated problems?
Unsaid at the back of all this is the gender difference in the community, where men will mate outside their race, and women won't... putting them at a competitive disadvantage. So, anything that they perceive as giving them an advantage is seized upon.
SwissArmyD at May 7, 2012 9:54 AM
This harkens back to the Fat Acceptance movement of 10 yrs ago or so. That's all fine when you're young, but when you hit 50 the knees, hips, backs, pancreas will pay the price.
I'm haunted by a WTC towers story, told by a fireman of a woman who was in so much pain as she hustled down the stairs with the other workers and firemen. At some point she couldn't go any further because of her knees..I think she had to sit down on the stairs.
carol at May 7, 2012 10:18 AM
When I stopped exercising I tried the no/low carb to maintain my weight and I ended up gaining 20 pounds! Now that my schedule has changed and I'm exercising again I've gone back to my normal diet and lost 10 pounds so far. Low carb is not for everyone and it's certainly not for me.
Ironically, I've had many people tell me I look better with the extra weight on which I don't get at all since I wasn't stick thin to begin with.
LL at May 7, 2012 11:34 AM
Rub-a-dub-dub, a tub is a tub.
Check this CDC page for various obesity info and reports:
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Obesity prevalence varies across states and regions
* During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and rates remain high.
* By state, obesity prevalence ranged from 21.0% in Colorado to 34.0% in Mississippi in 2010. No state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-six states had a prevalence of 25% or more; 12 of these states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of 30% or more.
* The South has the highest prevalence of obesity (29.4%) followed by the Midwest (28.7%), Northeast (24.9%) and the West (24.1%).
Obesity affects some groups more than others
* Non-Hispanic blacks have the highest rates of obesity (44.1%) compared with Mexican Americans (39.3%), all Hispanics (37.9%) and non-Hispanic whites (32.6%). [Read articleExternal Web Site Icon]
Obesity and socioeconomic status
[Read data brief Adobe PDF file [PDF-1.07Mb]]
* Among non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American men, those with higher incomes are more likely to be obese than those with low income.
* Higher income women are less likely to be obese than low-income women.
* There is no significant relationship between obesity and education among men. Among women, however, there is a trend—those with college degrees are less likely to be obese compared with less educated women.
* Between 1988–1994 and 2007–2008 the prevalence of obesity increased in adults at all income and education levels
Jay J. Hector at May 7, 2012 12:04 PM
This is also a LARGE reason Mississipi and Louisiana are among the fattest states, always.
Exercise keeps me thinner b/c the more muscle I have, the more calories I burn even sitting around. I like it.
momof4 at May 7, 2012 1:23 PM
"Skinny is a white thing."
And an Asian thing. But I think Asians have a weird sexuality. They value cuteness over hotness. Their mags are ripe with chicks with big tits but boob jobs are not popular. They like that cute teenage girl innocent look. I mean their mags are ripe with chicks looking "cute and innocent".
Me? I like the Sofia Vergara look. Big tits and a nice ass and curves.
Purplepen at May 7, 2012 6:34 PM
I can tell how much I weigh by the color of the men who hit on me.
Insufficient Poison at May 8, 2012 4:26 AM
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