Gala – Celebrating 20 Years
Latinos And The Obesity Epidemic
Read the original story on The Futuro Media Group’s website here.
Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the US after cigarette smoking. Latinos are especially hard hit, developing diabetes and other obesity related health problems at high rates. Reporter Nova Safo visits the predominantly Latino city of Santa Ana, California to see how biology, economics and environment all contribute to the problem.
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Nova Safo is a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers a wide variety of topics ranging from the Hollywood entertainment industry, to visual arts, culture, politics, policy, health, science, the future of energy, economics, and the occasional massive wildfire.
His reporting has been heard on NPR’s various newsmagazines and other public radio programs, and published online by Yahoo! News and others. He is the recipient of Hearst journalism awards for radio reporting, as well as an NLGJA/RTNDA award for excellence in online journalism.
HBO obesity documentary features O.C. Latino health advocate
Published: May 8, 2012 Updated: May 9, 2012 9:17 a.m.
The toll an overweight society pays is large, especially for children. For a look at an Orange County teen who lost weight thanks to this program, click here
By COURTNEY PERKES / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
In an HBO documentary airing this month, America Bracho watches as chubby children play on an asphalt parking lot because they have no grassy park in their Santa Ana neighborhood. In another scene, her voice chokes with emotion as she talks with a mother worried about the obesity epidemic.
Bracho, executive director of Latino Health Access and a physician in her native Venezuela, is featured prominently throughout the four-part series, “The Weight of the Nation,” which premieres Monday. The series was made in conjunction with the Institute of Medicine and offers an alarming look behind the statistics that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.
Weight program bears fruit for O.C. teen
Published: May 8, 2012 Updated: May 15, 2012 11:05 a.m.
For more about the Orange County influence in “The Weight of the Nation” documentary,click here.
Within the span of a year, Angel Hernandez went from eating McDonald’s McSkillets to cooking a healthy breakfast for the film crew shooting an obesity documentary in Santa Ana.
Hernandez, 18, lost about 70 pounds with help from Latino Health Access, the nonprofit organization featured throughout the four-part documentary “The Weight of the Nation” that premieres this month on HBO.
Angel Hernandez, 18, of Santa Ana lost more than 70 pounds after taking an eight-week class offered by Latino Health Access. He cooked breakfast for the crew filming the HBO documentary “The Weight of the Nation.”
COURTNEY PERKES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
To demonstrate his transformation, Hernandez prepared refried beans with a little olive oil as well as the Mexican dish chilaquiles, which he made with baked tortillas rather than fried. Chopped melon completed the spread.
Hernandez, who is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighed 210 pounds when his doctor referred him to an eight-week nutrition and exercise program offered by Latino Health Access.