Weight Loss Tips Are Different In African-American Magazines
According to a University of Iowa study, magazines with high African-American readerships are less likely to educate their audiences about weight loss and more likely to encourage fad diets and faith to lose weight.
In the U.S., 33% of all women are classified as overweight or obese as compared to 75% of African-American women.
The study compared over 400 nutrition and fitness articles published between 1984 and 2004 in Ebony, Essence, and Jet - all magazines with 90% or more African-American readerships - versus Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, and Ladies’ Home Journal - which have 11% or less African-American readerships and were labelled “mainstream.”
Here’s how the articles and weight loss advice differed:
1. Mainstream magazines were 2 times more likely to advise eating more protein and whole grains, low-fat foods, and smaller portions.
2. Fad diets were suggested as reasonable strategies in 15% of African-American weight loss articles, but only 5% of the mainstream ones. In this case, fad diets were those that may work in the short term only such as the Atkins Diet, the Dick Gregory Bahamian Diet, the Hilton Head Diet, and the South Beach Diet.
3. 10% of the weight loss stories in African-American magazines talked about relying on God or faith. But that approach was rarely mentioned in the mainstream magazines.
4. African-American magazines offered fewer strategies per article than mainstream magazines.
5. Mainstream magazines increased the number of articles on nutrition and fitness as the obesity epidemic became worse while African-American magazines didn’t.
Both types of magazines suggested that the responsibility for weight loss fell on the individual rather than blaming environmental or economic factors.
But the researchers believe the study points to a serious need for leaders in the African-American and health communities to urge their media to raise coverage of weight loss and obesity health issues.
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