THE ANTI-OBESITY OBESITY TALK
Janice Johnson Dias, PhD
GrassROOTS Community Foundation
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Prepared for
DASH NY Coalition Conference
Community Partnership to End Obesity
March 23, 2013
Adult Obesity Rate in Mississippi Could Reach 66.7
Percent by 2030
Related Health Care Costs Could Climb by 11.7 Percent
Why Newark?
Low LITERACY rates
High levels of OBESITY
CRIME rates
Serenity
Serenity
Serenity
Beyond Obesity to HEALTH
Physical Health
• Breast Cancer
Sexual Health
Mental Health
• HIV/AIDS
• STDs
• Anxiety
• Depression
Obesity is one of the central gateways to poor mental & sexual health
Why HEALTH?
• Chronic illness and cancer kills
• Mortality
• Breast Cancer
• Obesity-related illnesses
• HIV/AIDS
• Depression/Anxiety
Poverty and Health
• People living in poverty tend to have more chronic illnesses,
more frequent and severe disease complications and make
greater demands on the health care system
• Higher rates of breast cancer
• Higher rates of obesity
• Higher rates of HIV
• Higher rates of suicide
Who are the poor?
• Poorest 20 percent are young
• About two-thirds are single individuals
• More than one-third have not finished high school.
• Minorities are substantially overrepresented
• Being black in America means a one in four chance of being
poor
• Being young and black raises your chance of being poor up to
one in 2.5.
THE TARGET OF OUR FEARS
and hope
• Black boys and men (14-20 years old)