Tuesday, September 7, 2010

NYC has fatter kids than rest of USA

From the NY Times:

New York City schoolchildren are as heavy, or perhaps even heavier, than the national average, despite the Bloomberg administration’s dogged efforts to improve the health of city residents, according to new data from the city’s health department.

Two out of five, or 40 percent, of the nearly 637,000 children in kindergarten through the eighth grade were found to be overweight or obese in the 2008-9 school year. Those rates were the same as in the previous year, according to a survey of both school years that is to be released on Sunday.

That compares with 35.5 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds nationally, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among New York City children who were overweight, 22 percent were obese, compared with 19.6 percent nationally.

The numbers were broken down by ZIP code and showed that less-affluent neighborhoods had the most severe problems. In the 2008-9 school year, the highest rates were found in Corona, Queens, where 51 percent of schoolchildren were overweight or obese. That was followed by parts of Harlem, with 48 to 49 percent, and Washington Heights, with 47 percent.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking at that map, I'd say fried chicken is to blame.

Anonymous said...

It's not just the kids........

Deke DaSilva said...

In the 2008-9 school year, the highest rates were found in Corona, Queens, where 51 percent of schoolchildren were overweight or obese.

Other areas with overweight and obesity rates of 45 percent or higher included East Harlem, parts of Bushwick and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and Astoria Heights and part of Jackson Heights in Queens.


This is interesting, because I came across a graph over the weekend showing the percentage of the population with a BMI above 30, by country.

Unfortunately, the U.S. comes in first place.

Who's in 2nd place? The answer might surprise you!

But, if you read the Times article, and think about the NYC neighborhoods where the highest number of fatties are, it will all make sense!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons
/thumb/a/a3/Bmi30chart.png/800px-Bmi30chart.png

No undocumented fattie left behind!!

Anonymous said...

All areas of/with extremely high hispanic population.

"The gringos are fat pigs" I once heard a slim ecuadorian man say.

HA!

Anonymous said...

It's all Bush's fault!

Anonymous said...

Fat fetish pedophiles will have a field day here.

Anonymous said...

I would say its the high fructose corn syrup. Maybe try some juice with nothing added at all. Just real juice not that Libby's type sugar drink.