Showing posts with label U.S.A.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S.A.. Show all posts

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Obesity, is it racism?

 In the United States, everything that is bad is blamed on racism.  Especially health issues.  And racism of course, is blamed on the history of African slavery and Jim Crow within the U.S.  But what about Britain? Overweight adults - GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures (ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk)

  • in the year to November 2021, 63.5% of adults (people aged 18 and over) were overweight or living with obesity – up from 62.8% the previous year
  • 72.0% of adults from black ethnic groups were overweight or living with obesity – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
  • 37.5% of adults from the Chinese ethnic group were overweight or living with obesity – the lowest percentage out of all ethnic groups
  • compared with the year ending November 2016, the percentage of adults who were overweight or living with obesity went up in the white British ethnic group (from 62.1% to 64.5%), mixed ethnic group (from 53.9% to 59.5%) and 'other' ethnic group (from 58.9% to 66.2%)
  • the percentages were broadly similar to those from the year ending November 2016 for all other ethnic groups
Their ethnic census list is even more complicated than the U.S.  Our government continues to break down the country into race categories.

The UK ethnic groups for the Obesity Survey were:

Asian or Asian British
Indian
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Chinese
Any other Asian background

Black, Black British, Caribbean or African
Caribbean
African
Any other Black, Black British, or Caribbean background

Mixed or multiple ethnic groups
White and Black Caribbean
White and Black African
White and Asian
Any other Mixed or multiple ethnic background

White
English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British
Irish
Gypsy or Irish Traveller
Roma
Any other White background

Other ethnic group
Arab
Any other ethnic group

In Wales, ‘Welsh’ is the first option in the White category. See the article for how race is recorded in Ireland.

In the USA, obesity is also a problem. 

Obesity in the United States from Statista, Obesity rates U.S. adults by race/ethnicity 2021 | Statista 

 Unless the definition of overweight/obesity is different, it looks like the Brits are fatter than the Americans! The Statista data represent adults who reported having a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25.0 kg/meters squared.

"Obesity is a present and growing problem in the United States. An astonishing 32 percent of the adult population in the U.S. is now considered obese. Obesity rates can vary substantially by state, with around 41 percent of the adult population in West Virginia reportedly obese, compared to 25 percent of adults in Hawaii. The states with the highest rates of obesity include West Virginia, Kentucky, and Alabama.

Diabetes 

Being overweight and obese can lead to a number of health problems, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Being overweight or obese is one of the most common causes of type 2 diabetes, a condition in which the body does not use insulin properly, causing blood sugar levels to rise. It is estimated that just over eight percent of adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes is now the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for three percent of all deaths.

Obesity rate by race/ethnicity

White 31.5%
Black 43.9%
Hispanic 36.7%
Asian/Pacific Islander 13.2%
Native American/Alaskan Indian 38.6%
Other 32.9%

The CDC provides additional information on obese Americans.
  • The US obesity prevalence was 41.9% in 2017 – March 2020. (NHANES, 2021)
  • From 1999 –2000 through 2017 –March 2020, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 41.9%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. (NHANES, 2021)
  • Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. These are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death.
  • The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was nearly $173 billion in 2019 dollars. Medical costs for adults who had obesity were $1,861 higher than medical costs for people with healthy weight.
Here's a shocking statistic from CDC:  "Over a ten-year period [1998-2008], the number of states with 40 percent or more of their young adults who were overweight or obese went from 1 to 39." MR_Too_Fat_to_Fight-1.pdf (missionreadiness.org)

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Forget Russia. What about the U.S.A.

Let's forget Russia, Russia, Russia for the moment. “They’re here in large numbers, actively trying to penetrate a whole host of sectors—government, industry, and academia.” according to a Obama official in 2016 as reported in the New Yorker. Going on for over a decade--that'd be Bush and Obama. "After neglecting the Russian threat for a decade, the U.S. was caught flat-footed by Moscow’s election operation. Now, officials are scrambling to figure out how to contain a sophisticated intelligence network that’s festered and strengthened at home after years’ worth of inattention." (Politico)

If destroying patriotism and love of country were the goal, the Russians succeeded in academe and the entertainment culture with a heavy boost from the Democrats who failed to see the problem, then added to it.

But then. How much interfering does the USA do in the cultures and elections and businesses of other countries? You know, like Bill and Melinda Gates and birth control? Or big pharma testing its products on brown and black babies? Or removing DDT from the tool box to defeat malaria as demanded by liberals of the 1970s? Or helping with the funding of preferred candidates in Kenya or Egypt or eliminating the leaders like Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime by Obama? Department of State AID for agriculture? It's endless. We have military bases all over the world through "treaties" and "trade agreements." That's not interfering?