That's a new development on a couple of levels. It's a sign of Mexico's economic progress that the country is a member of the OECD. It is perhaps a symptom of that new found wealth that Mexicans are digging their graves with their knives and forks almost as fast as their NAFTA neighbors next door. The old verities about American obesity and immigrant health -- that newcomers arrived slim and became fat after taking on the American way of eating -- are falling by the wayside as obesity rates creep higher in "sending" countries.
My program on HITN TV, Destination Casa Blanca, took a look at obesity and Latinos in the United States. A stunning number of Latinos in the United States, from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America are obese or overweight, and their U.S.-born children are growing up with weight problems. On the first anniversary of Michelle Obama's Let's Move program, we asked, are the numbers moving in the right direction?
The short answer is ... sorta. The rate of increase in weight problems has slowed. Schools are taking gradual steps toward improving the meals they serve, and including more physical education in the required curriculum. But the trends that push on weight problems have not changed: increasingly sedentary youth, the easy availability of highly caloric food, less walking and biking to school. READ MORE
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