By C. Nicole Mason

A few weeks ago, I was visiting with a friend and she relayed a troubling story to me. She had visited family down south and threw a slumber party for her nieces and nephews. As a part of her duties for the evening, she fixed dinner and provided the treats. To the usual fare of ice cream and pizza, she added a vegetable tray of carrots and celery. While chowing down, her nephew turned to her and asked what it was he was eating that tasted so good.

It was a carrot.

Soon after her husband delivered his State of the Union address, First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled her own agenda for 2010. Along with her continued work with military families and volunteerism, it will include an intense focus on childhood obesity. While her efforts will be broad and will focus nationally, her crusade to help children lead more healthful lifestyles may turn out to be a boon for the black community.

Nationwide, black and Latino children are more likely to be obese at 21 percent and 23 percent respectively, compared to just 14 percent of whites. Among African-American children between the ages of 6 to 11, almost 36 percent are overweight, and 20 percent are considered obese. As they get older, the numbers get bleaker—41 percent of black teens are overweight and 24 percent are obese.

Putting a familiar face to the problem

Healthful living and weight loss are not typical issues talked about in the African-American community. Our culture embraces big, hearty meals on Sundays and often looks down on both men and women who are considered too thin. Many of us connect a little thickness with health. The obsessive quest for thinness is usually associated with whites, white women in particular. In our community, voluptuous hips and round butts seem to carry the day.

Having Michelle Obama as a spokesperson on childhood obesity will go along way toward normalizing the issue in the black community and starting a much needed dialogue about what it means to be healthy. It is not about starving ourselves or giving up the foods we love, but about making healthy choices that will help to decrease the chance that we will develop diabetes, high cholesterol or hypertension down the road.

Beyond the Dollar Menu

For many, leading a more healthful life boils down to economics—a head of lettuce costs $3.00, while an entire meal that includes a hamburger, fries and a soda costs about the same from a fast food chain. And when parents are pressed for time and money, the latter choice seems like a more realistic and even reasonable choice.

The quality and quantity of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods do not do much to encourage healthful lifestyles, either. Overpriced or wilted produce can make the decision for parents. Finding a neighborhood with better prices and more food options is time-consuming. I have yet to encounter one low-income neighborhood with a Whole Food market or Trader Joe’s within walking distance. What is within walking distance, however, is an endless supply of take-out restaurants and fast food chains.

What tastes good to me today is highly influenced by what I ate as a child. One of the biggest obstacles parents cite for changing the eating habits of their children is wasting money buying food their children refuse to eat. When families are stretching to make ends meet, the last thing they need is food left on the table uneaten.

The other half of healthful living

A significant part of healthful living is physical activity. African-American parents say the lack of safe places to play, in some instances, influences whether they encourage their children to be active. Likewise, they believe the community does not often support or help sustain healthy lifestyle changes. And many public schools have significantly cut or eliminated physical education programs.

Moving the needle on healthy living in African-American communities

In addition to changing the attitudes of blacks on what is considered healthy or good for you, we will have to address the structural and institutional barriers that make it difficult for blacks to lead more healthful lives, like the lack of quality grocery stores in neighborhoods and the plenteousness of fast chains. We also need sound public policies that will work to curb disparities and address the underlying causes of childhood obesity.

Michelle Obama’s efforts are long overdue. It is time for a national and community conversation about childhood obesity. Seeing and hearing the First Lady talk about the need for a more healthful lifestyle and showing us how to do it will go a long way to ward changing attitudes and perceptions in the black community.

Dr. C. Nicole Mason is the Executive Director of the Women of Color Policy Network at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.