I took a new job a little over a year ago, that has me traveling all over the country, mostly visiting hospitals or surgery centers. Corpulent Americans, IME, are most prevalent in the South, but Americans are overweight throughout the land. One thing I’ve noticed though, is that while I see a lot of obese European and African American people, I very rarely see rotund Asian Americans. Why is this? I’m not talking about Asians in Asia, where the diet and lifestyle are different, but Americans right here with the rest of us, eating crap like burgers, fries, pizza, and ice cream. Is it genetic, better discipline…or what?
Obesity rates in Asian-Americans does seem to be markedly lower than in other races. I wouldn’t be qualified to guess at why although I believe that Asian-Americans tend to be higher income (on average) and obesity affects lower income brackets at a higher rate. The more money you have, the better you can afford to eat, afford gym memberships, have more time to work out, etc. I’m not saying that’s the only reason but it’s the first that comes to mind.
AIUI, it is largely genetic (I did find some sources but they didn’t seem official/good enough to cite.) The theory/observation was that some of it is about fat distribution location on the body - so that many Asian-Americans are “skinny fat,” in that their fat is better tucked away in a way that is less visible, but actually more dangerous - located around internal organs, which poses greater danger of prediabetes and diabetes, etc. Whereas many white or other-race people have their fat more likely to show up in arms, thighs, etc. in a way that is more visible.
It doesn’t seem to be exercise or lifestyle because many Asian-Americans, as you point out, are just as sedentary as anyone else.
I’ve heard this argument too. Asians are genetically prone to not getting as fat, but the fat they do carry is more likely to be the dangerous abdominal visceral fat rather than subcutaneous fat (which is unsightly but does less health damage).
I once saw a study that said the BMI for overweight should be lowered to around 22 for east asians, and the BMI for obese lowered to around 27 because they are more prone to carrying visceral fat.
By comparison, pacific islanders have very high obesity rates. I think the obesity rate in east asia is 5%, it is around 50% in the pacific islands.
I’m going straight to anecdote here, based on the 40+ members of my wife’s family whom I know pretty well, who range from kids up to people in their 80’s - Nisei, Sansei, Yansei, and Gosei.
They eat a lot more fish and chicken, and a lot less beef, than their Euro American spouses and in-laws. And it’s broiled and stir-fried with little oil or fat.
They eat a lot of vegetables, both raw and cooked.
Their carb of choice is rice.
They don’t drink much alcohol. AFAICT, a lot of them have very low tolerance for alcohol, so unless they’re deliberately trying to get drunk, they’ll generally have one drink through the entire evening.
Not that they’re perfect. They drown everything in soy sauce/shoyu, which is loaded with sodium.
They may chomp down on pizza and burgers when they’re out, but at home they’re eating fresh fish and rice with lots of vegetables.
Looks in mirror…“I’m one of the few!” Yay??? 
Sounds like too small a sample size in specific work environments (i.e. medical centers) where the workers (in my experience) tend to be trimmer probably because of the type of work, on their feet most of the day and perceptions of patients, you probably don’t want an obese nurse monitoring your weight loss.
This CDC report https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html states that 12.7% of Asian adults were obese, hardly a few.
"Were there differences in the prevalence of obesity among adults by race and Hispanic origin in 2015–2016?
The prevalence of obesity was lower among non-Hispanic Asian adults (12.7%) compared with all other race and Hispanic-origin groups. Hispanic (47.0%) and non-Hispanic black (46.8%) adults had a higher prevalence of obesity than non-Hispanic white adults (37.9%). The pattern among women was similar to the pattern in the overall adult population. The prevalence of obesity was 38.0% in non-Hispanic white, 54.8% in non-Hispanic black, 14.8% in non-Hispanic Asian, and 50.6% in Hispanic women. Among men, the prevalence of obesity was lower in non-Hispanic Asian adults (10.1%) compared with non-Hispanic white (37.9%), non-Hispanic black (36.9%), and Hispanic (43.1%) men. Non-Hispanic black men had a lower prevalence of obesity than Hispanic men, but there was no significant difference between non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white men (Figure 2)."
Glad to hear you have a large Japanese extended family, but with all due respect your comments border on stereotyping, especially the ‘they’ statement. As Sansei (third generation) I, and most of the Asian people I know eat a variety of ethnic foods just as everyone else.
In general the only time I eat fish is sashimi, sushi or poke. I have two steaks in the fridge for my New Year Dinner and just made a pan of sloppy joe for my breakfast tomorrow. I knew a Filipino/White guy (yes, I consider Filipinos Asian) who ate at least one burger everyday for years. By chance are your relatives Okinawan? Traditional Okinawan dishes are heavy on the vegetables and the protein is usually fish, pork and chicken, rarely if ever beef. BTW, as I’ve stated many times, I’m Okinawan/Japanese.
The only vegetables I eat on a regular basis is green salads and frozen corn.
While rice is my perferred starch choice, usually eating it at least one a day, I eat nearly the same amount of bread or pasta overall. And my second sister stopped eating rice completely in her teens (she’s now near 70).
Most Asians are actually allergic to alcohol (I turn beet red with one drink) usually stop at two or three drinks mainly because I only drink socially, but I know a good number of Asians who can hold their beer and liquor as everyone else.
As for drowning everything in shoyu, that’s just part of Japanese style (though not Okinawan, which makes me ponder my question about your relatives above). If I was married to an Italian woman, I may say: “They drown everything in tomato sauce and olive oil”.
The report you linked to (as well as the report I linked to) refutes the OPs premise that there are few obese Asian Americans since the overall average rate of obesity for Asian/Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders is 41.9%. Hardly “few obese Asian Americans”. Also, the survey is highly skewed because nearly have the States have no data for the Asian/Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders category. Even accounting for statistical variance, I don’t see if the additional data would cause the average to drop to a rate could be that could be considered “few”.
I thought I made it clear that I was speaking anecdotally about the 40 or so members of my wife’s family whose eating habits I knew well enough to comment on. “They” is a very specific group.
I might also add that this group is very cohesive. In fact, the Nisei group and their older children lived in the same house for years (my wife was 10 when her parents moved into their own home.) I suspect many of their eating habits were set by my wife’s grandmother, who was an immigrant, and who held the family together through the Internment and years beyond.
The family came from Kyushu, not Okinawa.
To clarify, ONE type of Japanese style cooking. My Mom was from Yamaguchi prefecture and she used to cook (and I still do) sato/shoyu (sugar/soy sauce) style. But travel North or South and you’ll find prefectures that use less or no sugar or shoyu. Go further south to Okinawa very little or no shoyu is used in the traditional dishes.
Asians don’t eat a lot of dairy.
Wow, lots of stereotypes (uninteded stereotypes but still…) in this thread.
Indeed so.
People in the thread, who I imagine are mostly not from Hawaii, would be better off comparing Asian Americans who are not immigrants or the children of immigrants, i.e. at least the grandchildren of immigrants if not further removed.
I would be surprised if obesity rates for 3rd or beyond generation Asian Americans were not closer in line with the rest of the US. Immigrants, and to some extent, their children and to an even lesser extent their grandchildren will have lower rates of obesity as the general US population.
Of course, with few exceptions (Hawaii, some parts of the West Coast, some enclaves in the older cities) there just aren’t any 4th or 5th generation Asian Americans. Numbers are going to be skewed for a while, especially since immigration, rather than birth, provides a significant number of new Asian Americans.
Much of this is the diet. When I see things like “Asians don’t eat a lot of dairy”, that’s pretty much just recent immigrants. I can assure you a 3rd or 4th generation Asian American college student is probably scarfing down grilled cheese sandwiches like it was nothing (and this is likely part of the issue in Hawaii).
Wrong. The 41.9% figure is for both obese AND overweight and covers not only Asian-Americans but Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander-Americans as well. It doesn’t refute anything said by the OP.
I think what the thread is telling us is that earlier generations of Asian Americans tend to stick closer to the traditional diets. And that the traditional diets we’re lower in fat and simple carbs.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they could find pools of Mediterranean immigrants who stuck close to traditional Mediterranean cooking and were healthier as a group.
Unfortunately, if I stuck with one of my grandparents recipes I’d be consuming a lot of sour cream. If I followed the other side, I’d be using lard and frying every meal in cast iron skillets.
FWIW, I’m a Yonsei (my great grandparents immigrated from Japan) and I grew up on an American diet, eating Japanese food occassionally, plus lots of other ethnic foods-but overall, I’d consider my diet as a kid and adult to be that of a typical American.
Also, my travels did not take me to Hawaii, but Hawaii has a lot of Polynesian influence and Polynesians, unlike east or southeast Asians, tend to be quite heavyset.
You’re right! Said while eating a grilled cheese sandwich with a glass of milk and planning to have ice cream with whipped cream for desert! :smack:
Also:
We’re all good at math.
Wear glasses.
Talk with an accent.
Bow whenever we meet someone.
Are short.
YEESH!!! :mad:
I realize that the majority of those on this forum are Asian or live where there’s a large Asian population, but the amount of stereotyping and misinformation here is staggering. Replace Asian with Italian, Irish, German, etc. and there’s be an uproar here!
BTW, Asian-Pacific American and Asian-Pacific Islander is an official designation in the U.S and includes peoples typically not thought of as “Asian”.
"Asian-Pacific American (APA) or Asian-Pacific Islander (API) is a term sometimes used in the United States to include both Asian Americans and Pacific Islands Americans.
The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs defined Asian-Pacific Islander as “A person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes, for example, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Samoa; and in South Asia, includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan.” A definition from Henry Ford Health System states that an Asian-Pacific American is "A U.S. citizen whose origins are from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Samoa, Fiji, Guam, the U.S. Trust Territories of the Pacific or the Northern Marianas.
Asian or Pacific Islander was an option to indicate race and ethnicity in the United States Censuses in the 1990 and 2000 Census as well as in several Census Bureau studies in between, including Current Population Surveys reports and updates between 1994 and 2002.[1] A 1997 Office of Management and Budget directive separated the “Asian or Pacific Islander” racial category into two categories: “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.”[2] Following this change, the U.S. Census Bureau defined Asian as “a person having origins in the in any of the original people of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.” The U.S. Census Bureau defined Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander as “a person having origins in any of the original people of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.”
The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs defined Asian-Pacific Islander as “A person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, or the Pacific Islands. This area includes, for example, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Samoa; and in South Asia, includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan.”[3] A definition from Henry Ford Health System states that an Asian-Pacific American is “A U.S. citizen whose origins are from Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Samoa, Fiji, Guam, the U.S. Trust Territories of the Pacific or the Northern Marianas.[4]”
So if Pacific Islanders tend to be heavier and Asians are genetically predisposed to being thinner, if I’m half Hawaiian, half Japanese, I should be the ideal weight. SIGH
You’re right! Said while eating a grilled cheese sandwich with a glass of milk and planning to have ice cream with whipped cream for desert! :smack: