Obesity Woes: Asian Americans at a Higher Risk [Correction]

Asian Americans may be at a great risk for obesity, despite lower obesity rates compared with African-Americans and Hispanics, according to Medical Daily.

This may be due to the possibility that Asian Americans may also be faced with related health effects of obesity at lower weights, embodying the concept of a "skinny fat" person. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considered Asian Americans along with other racial groups in the National Health and Nutritional Examination survey for the first time ever.

At present, the population of Asians in cities along the West Coast, Chicago and along the Eastern Seaboard is growing. The researchers involved in the study said that the body mass index (BMI) may serve as a poor indicator of health for many Asians - a heterogeneous racial group with ancestral heritage from the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian Subcontinent.

"It looks as if we don't have a problem, but it's a huge problem," Karen Kim, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, told NBC News. "There are huge differences where weight does not adequately reflect the realities of complications from being overweight. For Asians, you do not have to be overweight to get the complications for obesity." President and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Kathy Ko Chin, says Asian-Americans should shun the concept of "model minority" in which people belonging in this racial group think that they are immune to health effects typically associated with 'fatter' Americans.

"'I'm skinny, and I'm Asian, I should be fine - I don't have to worry about obesity and diabetes'" is the attitude held by many Asians across the country, Scott Chan, program director for the Asian Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance, told NBC News. "We buy into that." So much so, Chan said, he has trouble convincing members of his own family to take seriously the stealthy risk of diabetes and other obesity-related ailments, given deceptively lower body weights and apparent good health. 

Correction: A previous version of this article published on Oct. 22 incorrectly attributed Scott Chan's quote to Kathy Ko Chin, the President and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. An update has been made to reflect this change.