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Obesity is the greatest health risk for Hispanics today. The problem is found in the lifestyle of anyone suffering from obesity, Hispanic or otherwise. Choosing foods like sweets, soft drinks, or fried foods leads to obesity and diabetes. Avoiding physical exercise greatly accelerates the problem. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that 73% of Latinos are overweight, compared with 64% of non-Hispanics. Latinos suffer from obesity-related type 2 diabetes at nearly twice the rate of the general population with diabetes-related illnesses ranking fifth among the leading causes of death for Latinos.

Obesity cuts across all cultures and ethnic populations in this country. Yet, the prevalence of being overweight among U.S. Hispanic children is higher than the overall youth population. Twenty-three percent of Hispanic children and teenagers ages 6-19 are overweight, compared to 15% of their non-Hispanic counterparts. The more hours children spend watching TV, the more likely they will be obese; and more than 50% of Hispanic children spend three hours or more a day watching TV, compared to 37% of their White counterparts. During the past 20 years, U.S. adolescents (all ethnicities) have eaten the same number of calories, but their physical activity has declined by 13%.

Like Blacks, Hispanics also tend to have high-fat diets, according to Cindy Moore, a registered dietitian and Director of Nutrition Therapy at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “What we eat and when we eat and why we eat is all intertwined in our culture,” Moore said. “The types of foods that we consider comfort foods is related to our culture, and the foods that we use for celebrating is all part of our culture.”

People, regardless of ethnicity, who grew up in families where a lot of fried and high-fat/high-calorie foods were eaten tend to carry those eating habits into adulthood. The same trend has been observed among rural Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. So while cultural eating habits are a factor in why some ethnic groups weigh more than others, that alone, according to researchers, does not tell the whole story. Socioeconomics, access to stores with nutritious foods, and genetics also come into play.

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is very concerned with obesity and diabetes. NCLR’s Institute for Hispanic Health (NCLR/IHH), in partnership with the America On the Move Foundation (AOMF) Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living, and the PepsiCo Corporate Fund, conducted 12 focus group discussions (FGDs) in November 2005 for the Latinos en Movimiento Project. These 12 focus groups consisted of Hispanic participants from four states: New Mexico, Texas, California, and Puerto Rico. NCLR plans to use the data collected from these discussions to establish community outreach programs that will educate Hispanics about healthier lifestyles. The outreach programs will focus on two basic steps to prevent obesity as one of the risk factors for diabetes. The first is to increase physical activity and the second is to decrease calories from the normal daily diet

Alarmed by the high rate of obesity among Hispanics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a Spanish translation of the food pyramid, the government's handy guide to good nutrition.

MiPirámide: Pasos Hacia Una Mejor Salud is the counterpart to the USDA's MyPyramid: Steps to a Healthier You. Among other things, "grains" have become "granos," and "meat and beans" are "carnes y frijoles" on the diagram of the major food groups.

"Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, especially in children and adolescents. Those statistics are even more alarming among Latino populations," Roberto Salazar, Administrator of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, said in Spanish at a news conference.

The government unveiled MyPyramid in April 2005, overhauling the food pyramid first introduced in 1992.

The 1992 pyramid had food groups arranged in horizontal layers, and the foods that should be eaten more frequently were along the bottom. The newer pyramid has categories of foods represented vertically in a rainbow of colors, and a running figure scales the pyramid to represent the importance of exercise.

Now, all the new graphics and the USDA's site are available in Spanish, and handouts and other materials have also been translated. In September, officials launched a version of the pyramid targeted at children, which has also been translated into Braille.

For more information on the USDA New Pyramid: http://www.mypyramid.gov.