While obesity rates may be leveling off for some, rates among Latino youth remain significantly high, according to a new fact sheet.
The fact sheet, from Leadership for Healthy Communities, indicates that Latino children and adolescents are more likely to be overweight and obese than their White peers, due to limited availability of healthy foods and safe recreational facilities that contribute to unhealthy environments for Latino families.
Factors such as acculturation and unhealthy food and beverage marketing play a role in higher rates of overweight and obesity among Latino youths.
“Comprehensive solutions, which include increasing access to affordable healthy foods in communities and schools, limiting the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages, addressing neighborhood safety, and improving the built environment, are necessary to prevent childhood obesity and safeguard the health of Latino children and adolescents,” the fact sheet concludes.
Read the full fact sheet here.
