Esperanza Garcia, 29, gave up fried foods, cut back on red meat and stopped picking up fast food.
Instead, the single mother of three builds her family’s meals around vegetables, fish and beans. And as much as she doesn’t like oatmeal for breakfast, she’s trying it out in an effort to lower her cholesterol.
With high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes in her family, Garcia decided to revamp her family’s diet two years ago. Her sons — ages 11, 10 and 6 — still plead for more red meat and fast food, but Garcia allows them to have tacos just twice a week.
“It’s little changes,” said Garcia, of Cicero, who attended the recent ¡Vive tu vida! Get Up! Get Moving! health fair. “If I don’t take care of my kids, who’s going to?”
Mexican-Americans like Garcia are almost twice as likely to have been diagnosed with diabetes than non-Hispanic whites, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The rate of diabetes for Hispanics in general is about 11 percent of the population compared with about 6 percent of non-Hispanic whites, federal statistics show.
Hispanics also are more likely to die before age 75 of stroke, diabetes, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, HIV and homicide, according to 2001 data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The problem is partly economic, said Esther Sciammarella, executive director of the Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition.
Fast food is cheap; fresh fruit and vegetables often are not. In some neighborhoods, there aren’t groceries to buy produce or open spaces to exercise, she said.
The health coalition on Saturday held the health fair at McKinley Park on the South Side. The event, featuring cholesterol and blood pressure checks, was part of a 25-city tour focusing on Hispanics and health.
Like Garcia, Flor Urquiza, 40, now avoids red meat and eats more fruits and vegetables. When her doctor told her she was overweight two years ago, Urquiza, who also attended the fair in her neighborhood, changed her diet and started to exercise at the park with her 8-year-old daughter.
She has lost 20 pounds and her cholesterol is normal.
“Before, I used to fry a lot of food,” said Urquiza, originally from Mexico. “I used to eat a lot of tortillas.”
It took a heart attack for Martin Rosales, 47, who was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago, to change his diet. The River Forest resident took medicine to control the diabetes but still ate anything he wanted. Now, no more cheeseburgers, less bread and smaller portion sizes, he said.
His heart attack has also persuaded his brother to start eating better, Rosales said..
“Prevention is key,” said Natalie Meza, who does community outreach for the Hispanic Community Health Survey, a four-city study of disease and risk factors. “We know diabetes affects our community.”
But prevalence of diabetes and other chronic conditions among Hispanics is likely underestimated, she said. The survey, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, seeks more comprehensive data about Hispanics in Chicago, Miami, San Diego and New York’s Bronx borough.
Garcia said changing her diet has given her more energy and helped her lose weight. She wants to be healthy for her three sons and set a good example — even if they complain they want fast food and soda, she said.
“I’m trying to show them there’s a healthier way,” she said.