Discrimination against whites linked to obesity*
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About 2 in every 3 Americans are overweight or obese, and it’s clearly linked to eating too much of the wrong foods and not exercising enough. Right? Well, yes, but there’s a growing interest in psychosocial risk factors, as well, especially stress.
Researchers have theorized that discrimination is a kind of chronic stress. The stress sets up an overworked fight or flight response, altering the body’s release of chemicals, like cortisol, and resulting in disease or obesity.
But it’s not just minorities that feel discrimination. A new study, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published online today in the American Journal of Public Health, finds that discrimination is linked to overweight in people of Irish, Polish, Jewish and Italian descent -- but not black and Latino people.
Researchers analyzed data on 3,100 Chicagoans --Latinos, blacks and whites of various ethnicities. They found that Irish, Jewish, Polish and Italians who said they experienced discrimination were two to six times more likely to be overweight compared with whites who didn’t report feeling discriminated against. But among Latinos and blacks, no link was found between experiencing discrimination and obesity.
Explanations for the lack of connection among minorities came from lead author Haslyn Hunte, researcher at Purdue University, in a news release.
First, blacks and Hispanics may have developed mechanisms for coping with stress that ethnic whites have not developed. Second, blacks and Hispanics may have different social norms for obesity than ethnic whites. Third, discrimination may simply be more pervasive and insidious than is widely believed.
An article in the Los Angeles Times last year, ‘The Toll of Racism?,’ explored the connection between racism and poor health among African Americans, finding increased risks of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and a host of other diseases.
‘Discrimination hurts everyone,’ says Hunte in the release. ‘The feeling that you’re not being given a fair shot on a day-to-day basis gets under the skin in a variety of ways, including your health.’
-- Susan Brink