Sarah Ferguson, Valerie Bertinelli, Kirstie
Alley, Jenny Craig, and Marilu Henner…all white weight loss warriors. Other than Oprah Winfrey, whose yo-yo-ing weight
over the years is well-documented, overweight African-American women have few black role models to look to when facing their
own weight loss battles.
Overweight white women are more likely than
their black counterparts to seek outside help when fighting the fat, according to a recent study. The findings, published
in the latest edition of the journal Ethnicity & Disease, confirmed that while
overweight black women may be just as distressed as heavy white women by their excess weight, seeking outside help was far
less common among black women.
“We found that African-American women did not differ from Caucasians in terms of concerns about
body shape and weight,” but white women were more likely to be influenced by those concerns to seek help, said lead
author Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
(“White Women More Likely Than Black Women to Seek Dieting Help,” Science Daily, July 10,2007).
Amy Eyler, Ph.D., associate professor, at the
Saint Louis University School of Public Health, offers likely reasons.
“Role modeling can be important,”
Eyler said. “Some African-American women may be less likely to attend a group led by Caucasian women. They may also
tend to ask for help from family members first, rather than outside help.”
Annunziato suggested that a team effort may be
the best tactic for getting African-American women and other ethnicities to seek help.
“Community-based approaches appear to be
promising vehicles for promoting weight loss in ethnic minorities; however, there is much work to be done in terms of developing
programs that improve both weight loss and successful maintenance of weight loss,” she said.
Eyler also recommended another way to help women
reach their goals. Known as caretakers, women of all backgrounds tend to focus more on others than on themselves, according
to Eyler.
“Offering exercise programs
at work could encourage women to work on weight loss,” she said.
The study concluded that weight
loss programs should be modified to welcome minorities, and that the women involved in the study did not cite obesity-related
health problems as their primary reasons for wanting to lose weight. Therefore, appearance-related issues were more likely
the motivating factor for both white and black women; weight loss programs can use that information as a factor in learning
how to best target a broader audience.
