Living here makes you less healthy and more fat:

Millions of Latinos come to America looking for jobs and educations, but remaining here seems to be bad for their health.

The longer Latinos are here, the more likely they are to become obese, to develop diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. And Latinos born here have even higher rates of those illnesses, a new government report shows.

I always thought it was true, and have anecdotal knowledge that tells me that as much as certain types of Latino foods are villified by the mainstream as being unhealthy, people back in the home countries eat a lot better than Latino immigrants in the United States. Sure, tacos and tortas aren’t the best foods available, but they sure as hell beat McDonalds’ hamburgers and Pizza Hut.

There is also more of a focus on the concept of a “meal” in Latin America than there is in the U.S. In Mexico, a typical workday lunch means a soup, then a plate of rice (maybe with banana or egg), then a larger dish of meat or fish accompanied by a small bit of salad. While not the type of low carb meal we associate with gym bunnies, and perhaps a bit heavy, it is balanced to some extent.

It’s no wonder why Latinos who are accustomed to eating tortilla, frijol, chile and nopal — all very healthy foods — have trouble reconciling their metabolism with the stuff we eat here. Without the exercise that walking and taking public transportation provides (the norm in most of Latin America), and with the introduction of this new diet on genes that have been fed for a millenia on the food of the homeland, obesity is almost a given. The figures are startling:

Among Latinos born in this country, 29.8 percentare obese, 24.5 percent report high blood pressure, 10.8 percent are diabetic and 7.6 percent have heart disease.

Among the native-born U.S. population overall, 22.9 percent are obese, 24.3 percent have high blood pressure, 6.1 percent are diabetic and 7.6 percent have heart disease.

Being from Texas, I know that Mexican food has been completely bastardized into something that is unrecognizable: Tex-Mex. Wouldn’t it be nice if “real” Mexican food were to creep into the mainstream? With the number of Latino grocery stores increasing, perhaps it will be easier to hold onto those eating habits that have kept Latinos healthy for so many years.

Related reading: Latino Diet Changes Deemed Health Crisis

Via / Salt Lake Tribune