Migrating to America can be hazardous to immigrants' diet and health

Andrea Lynn:

So says Ilana Redstone Akresh (pronounced AY-kresh), a visiting professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of a new analysis of dietary assimilation and immigrant health. In her study, Akresh considered the changes in immigrants' diets after coming to the United States and the subsequent relationship between those changes and Body Mass Index (BMI) and health status.

She found that 39 percent of her sample of 6,637 adults reported at least one significant change in their diet. The most commonly reported dietary changes were an increased consumption of junk food and meat, according to her findings in the not-yet published study.

More than 10 percent of the sample reported eating more junk food in the United States, while more than 8 percent said they ate more meat in America than they ate in their home countries. Nearly 15 percent reported eating fewer vegetables, fruit, fish or rice and beans. As a consequence of their acquired tastes, many new immigrants are not only bulking up, but also becoming less healthy, Akresh said.

Dietary change as an area of assimilation had not been studied, but Akresh believes that "in perhaps no realm more so than what one eats is assimilation more visible, tangible and directly experienced."

The changes that immigrants make may have short- and long-term health consequences, the professor said. "Understanding these changes and examining their determinants is an important precursor to a fuller understanding of immigrant health."

Solution: don't come to America!