Push to cut obesity rate among African Americans
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When Clinette Richardson got a note from her 11-year-old son's school asking her to enroll in a free health program because her son was in danger of becoming obese, she wasn't angry. She was elated.
Richardson, a single mom, had been trying to find ways to help her two kids slim down and avoid what has become a real issue in the black community: diabetes and strokes.
"When I got the notice, I thought this was an answered prayer," said Richardson, 36.
For 12 weeks from September through December, Richardson and her children, Clinton, 11, and Akirah, 14, attended a weekly class at Nap Ford Community School in Orlando, Fla., where a team of dietitians, psychologists and doctors coached 11 families.
Richardson said her family experienced a transformation.
"Now we exercise together two or three times a week," she said. "Before, I would go to the pool by myself, and my son would stay home and play video games. Now we go and race around the track together. It's more like play than exercise."
As the obesity crisis has enveloped the United States, it has thundered through the black community, where adults are more likely to suffer from diabetes, hypertension and strokes than whites. The crisis is especially severe among black women, 79.6 percent of whom are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From churches to schools to gyms, pastors and principals and personal trainers are urging black men and women - and kids - to rethink the way they eat and exercise.
It's part of a growing movement to tackle the health problems that plague black America. Last year, Dr. Ian Smith, a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School and a former health correspondent, made headlines when he launched a "50 Million Pound Challenge" - a challenge to the nation's black community to lose weight and tackle some of the serious health issues plaguing it.
Since he launched the challenge last April, an estimated 300,000 people have lost, collectively, 1.2 million pounds.
