Development & Aid, Headlines, Health, North America

U.S.: Unhealthy Food, Figures Feature in TV for Blacks – Study

Gabriel Packard

NEW YORK, Aug 13 2003 (IPS) - African American actress Whoopi Goldberg will kick off her new NBC sitcom with a scene in which her character lights up next to a no-smoking sign.

Casting the actress – a heavy smoker in real life – as the chain-smoking main character of ‘Whoopi’, due to air in September, has ruffled some feathers among health advocates and African American groups, who object to her character’s smoking as a bad and unhealthy example.

But a recent study finds that unhealthy images relating to food are already much more common on prime-time TV shows aimed at blacks than on other such shows.

Prime-time programmes like ‘Jamie Foxx’ and ‘Moesha’, which feature mostly black characters and are aimed at a black audience, include more overweight actors and also are surrounded by more commercials for junk food than shows such as ‘Frasier’ and ‘Friends’, whose characters are almost exclusively white.

Published in the ‘American Journal of Public Health’, the study finds that the black TV shows carry more food commercials – five during each half-hour show, compared to three for all prime-time shows – and a greater proportion of these commercials were selling candy, chocolate and soda.

A recent survey found 27 percent of African Americans to be obese, compared to a national average of 19 percent.

The dangers of obesity are well documented. Two newly published studies strengthen reports of a link between childhood obesity and the increased risk of adult cardiovascular disease, according to a recent issue of the ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’ (AJCN). Obesity has also been linked to diabetes, hypertension, and some cancers.

Each year, obesity causes at least 300,000 excess deaths in the United States, and health care costs of American adults with obesity amount to about 100 billion dollars, according to the American Obesity Association.

Obesity is also the second leading cause of unnecessary deaths, the group says.

Authors of the black TV show study say that they cannot directly link the commercials and overweight actors to the higher rate of obesity among blacks. But many African American health workers think there is a definite connection.

"If you keep pushing something in someone’s face, eventually they’re going to buy it," said one health educator from the California Black Health Network who asked not to be named.

When asked whether he thought the commercials had an effect on the health of African Americans, he said, "Definitely".

"There are other factors involved," he added, such as the sedentary lifestyle of many African Americans.

But he also said that the TV commercials are part of a wider campaign by fast food and junk food firms, which target African Americans. "It’s in all media for African Americans – billboards, television, magazines."

There is a high concentration of fast food chains like Pizza Hut and Burger King in inner city areas, black neighbourhoods and even schools. Taco Bell products, for example, are now sold in 4,000 U.S. schools.

The U.S. Surgeon General called in December for fast food to be removed from schools. And in recent months there have been a number of initiatives around the country, including taking soda machines out of schools and changing menus to make them more healthy.

Even so, obesity is more common than ever before among children. An estimated 15 percent of youths ages 6 to 19 suffer from the condition, about double the rate of 20 years ago. Obesity among children has reached such a high level that the American Academy of Paediatrics said this week that all children should be screened for obesity.

A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHNES) found that 21.5 percent of African American children and 21.8 percent of Hispanic children aged 4 to 12 are overweight, compared to 12.3 percent of white children.

In San Francisco, two hospitals say they are preparing to offer stomach-shrinking operations for youths. The UC San Francisco will use a reversible procedure that involves putting a band around the stomach, while the Stanford-based Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital says it will offer permanent "stomach stapling" operations.

But for many African American children – whose families would not be able to afford these expensive procedures, even if they wanted to – the battle against obesity is made more difficult by a lack of healthy food in their neighbourhoods.

Another study published in July in the ‘Journal of International Medicine’, found that grocery stores in black neighbourhoods in Los Angeles sell a very limited selection of healthy food. Only 38 percent of those stores sell skim milk, for example, while in white areas, 80 percent do.

Even though they acknowledge the task is difficult, programmes such as the California Black Health Network continue to educate African Americans on healthy eating and lifestyle choices. In health fairs and education classes, they stress that individuals remains in control of their health.

"In the end, everyone has to make a choice," says the Network’s health educator. "No matter how many McDonald’s ads you see, you don’t have to eat it."