By
Bill Graves / Native Health News Alliance
Small
social changes in diet and activity could have a big influence on
halting weight gain among Native Americans, but it often takes
transformational personal changes to drive people to lose weight and
keep it off, experts say.
The
daunting challenge of motivating Americans to move more and eat less
was a dominant theme in the four-day obesity program for 14 health
reporters in early June sponsored by the National Press Foundation at
the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, a
suburb of Denver.
In
presentations in the university’s Anschutz Health and Wellness
Center, researchers, physicians, fitness and nutrition experts,
journalists, and food company executives described the biological and
social forces that give rise to obesity and strategies for pushing
back against those forces.
The
challenges may be even bigger for Native Americans because they are
disproportionately disadvantaged, with more living both on
reservations and in low income city neighborhoods where good food is
scarce and options for work and an active lifestyle more limited. The
obesity epidemic has rendered 30 percent of Native Americans
overweight and another 40 percent obese. The rates for all Americans
are not much better, with a third overweight and another third obese.
Dr.
Holly Wyatt, a University of Colorado professor of medicine, said to
lose weight and sustain the loss people need to have bigger, deeper
reasons than fitting into a summer bikini or avoiding diabetes down
the road. They need to tap deeper desires to change, to transform, to
move from a victim mindset to a sense of empowerment, Wyatt said.
The
obesity epidemic over the past three decades is the fruit of our
success in building an environment full of calorie-rich, fat- and
sugar-laden, low-cost food and machines that allow us to move less
both in work and play, said James O. Hill, executive director of the
Anschutz Health and Wellness Center and co-author with Wyatt of the
diet book, “State of Slim.” We have more food energy at our
fingertips than ever while our more sedentary lives demand less
energy, creating an imbalance that makes us fat.
“Our
biology is not broken; it is what gets us obese in the current
environment,” he says. “Our physiology says eat, eat, eat. Our
biology is set up for that”
At
the same time, Americans are moving less, with more working service
jobs and fewer in manufacturing and only a fraction in farming, said
John Peters, professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado.
American males at work on average burn about 100 fewer calories today
than they did in 1960. Amish men, who still live agrarian lives
common in the 1800’s, take 18,000 steps a day compared to an
average 6,000 steps for other American men.
Genetics
can make people, including some Native Americans, more prone to
weight gain, said Dr. Daniel Bessesen, also a professor of medicine
at the University of Colorado. Ninety percent of the Pima Indians in
Arizona, for example, are obese. Genetically related Pima people in
northern Mexico are lean, probably because they are more active in
their agrarian lifestyle, Bessesen said.
An
individual’s level of impulsivity and emotional attachment to food
also can affect weight gain. So can his or her friends. A study of
12,000 people in the Framingham Heart Study between 1971 and 2003
showed that a person’s chance of becoming obese increased by 57
percent if they had a friend who became obese.
While
losing weight can be difficult, keeping it off is even more so
because the body resists staying lean, Bessesen said. The body
metabolism changes and uses less energy, yet the appetite increases.
And as the body ages, it burns less energy so if you don’t eat
less, you will gain weight. Health experts at the workshop stressed
that regular exercise is necessary to successfully keep weight off
permanently.
Several
speakers also noted that small changes could make big differences in
the obesity crisis. Americans eat on average only 15 calories more a
day than they burn, enough to add a pound or two a year. Small
changes like walking 15 minutes a day or eating a few less bites at
each meal could prevent weight gain in most of the population, Hill
said. The fast food industry could go a long ways toward equalizing
the energy balance by reducing portion sizes for say a hamburger by 5
percent, he said.
One
study, which has important implications for Indian Country, found
that people can cut the amount of sugar their body absorbs in half by
taking a 15 minute walk after each meal, said Dr. James A. Levine,
professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Brian Wansink, professor of
marketing at Cornell University, said schools can double or triple
the number of public school students taking fruit for lunch by simply
putting fruit in a nice bowl in a well-lit area.
Still,
as simple as it might seem to cut 100 calories out of your daily
diet, said Wyatt, sustaining that requires a big change in mindset
and lifestyle.
©
Native Health News Alliance
The
Native Health News Alliance (NHNA), a partnership of the Native
American Journalists Association (NAJA), creates and promotes shared
health news content for American Indian communities at no cost.
