You wake up one day and you're getting ready for school and for breakfast your options are cereal or pan dulce. If rushing, then you would pick up some fast food for breakfast like McDonalds. Later throughout the day at school you'll eat their lunch and for dinner you ask for pizza from Pizza Hut, Chicken from KFC, or Taco Bell. Worse of all for a snack later in the evening, you would have food made from your parents that you still have to eat. Yup, that was my life. I was an overweight/ borderline obese child and it wasn't only me, it is many people of my same background, Latinos living in lower middle to lower class communities.
Vitamina T or translated to english as vitamin T is a saying most latinos use referring that they only eat Tacos, Tortas, Tamales, etc. Meaning that they eat that and purely the dishes from where they're from. In no way or form am I against eating latino food, or simply Mexican food, but what I want to address is the amount that is eaten, the choices that are made, and not only relating to Mexican food, but to the lower class communities like were I am from, the decisions of eating every day.
Of course it is not as easy to tell your parents, friends, neighbors and etc to change diet. Trust me, I've tried that. Even if you have a vast knowledge on nutrition and translate it to Spanish. They still won't listen. Even if it is too late and your loved ones in your family are taking medicine for high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and/or more, they still won't budge to changing their diet. Thing is, it is much more complicated than that. Our culture, especially the older generation were raised with these foods. These foods had enough calories in them to last them the whole day of doing work. Now the food is more easily accessible, more loaded, bigger, ate more often, and cheaper. Resulting in BAM, a easy way to becoming overweight.
Dalieen Perez
"In this environment, children in low-income families are especially hard hit, as evidence demonstrates that consistent exposure to such advertising increases the likelihood of adopting unhealthy dietary practices"
According to Stateofobesity.org, their report on racial and ethnic disparities in obesity, they state that High Rates of Chronic illnesses, which in many cases are preventable, are among the biggest drivers of healthcare costs and reduced worker productivity. Going back to what Dalieen has said, this lifestyle affects every aspect of living, within latino communities. I see it first hand with my parents who have both diabetes and hypertension and I've also seen worse cases with neighbors and friends.
Richard Perez
“Resources for health are limited, like for exercise was limited too. The park didn’t have a soccer field nor workout equipment”
There is no easy way to fix/change/help latino communities with improving their habits. As a latino myself, I am proud of my heritage and culture but like my father always says, everything in moderation. I like eat tacos, tamales, gorditas, sopes, puzzle, etc all the mexican/latino food you can think of, but in moderation and the majority of the time I'm eating what my friends say "rabbit food". Another study, Obesity Control in Latin America, mentions that more intervention of offering more of these children in latino communities more play time and healthier food option. They mentioned that success for latino children to prevent obesity is the intervention of the family unit.
Kevin Gutierrez
"What sucks about not having many sports opportunities means we'd just skate around the city and eat whatever was the cheapest food, and that was usually the unhealthiest"
References
https://stateofobesity.org/disparities/latinos/
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