YHATC062: IN THE NEWS: Are Black Men Who Are Active in Church More Obese?

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In this “In The News” episode, I discuss a study that was recently shared with me that said that black men who attend church frequently are THREE TIMES more likely to be obese than those who rarely or never attend church. What does this mean? Hear my take.

Notes

An article titled “More obesity among black men who attend church often” from Futurity makes the claim that black men who attend church daily or almost daily are three times more likely to be obese than black men who either don’t attend or who barely attend.  The article also made the following claims:

• Black Baptists were more commonly diabetic than black Presbyterians and black Catholics
• Nearly ½ of all African-Americans are obese, in contrast to roughly 1/3 of the whole American population
• Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards, the lead author on the study of black men in church, suggests that men who are very active in church are also very busy outside of church, and that contributes to them putting a lower priority on health
• The authors of the study suggest that the black church may be facilitating obesity amongst the congregation through “shared societal norms”.

My Take

It is true, at least from my experience, that people in the black church are not the healthiest.

I have known of three people in churches that I have attended who died of heart attacks, two of whom died in the church.

I have known of a few who have suffered from diabetes with complications.

The only black men I know of who would possibly attend church almost daily would be clergy, deacons, maintenance and other similar positions, and that would probably be in large churches mostly.  That said, many of our church leaders are not the healthiest.

The black church probably indirectly facilitates obesity just because its members largely eat as they always have.  The black church does not traditionally promote healthy living.

I am a firm believer that we can not only have black churches full of healthy members, but that black churches can be an instrumental part of the turnaround in health outcomes of the black community, not just through health screenings, but through the encouragement of healthy lifestyles that are tied directly to our faith in God.

I plan to release my book Black, Christian and Healthy in October which will challenge black Christians to adopt healthy lifestyles as an extension of our faith.  Follow the #BlackChristianandHealthy hashtag.