Research on Mexican-Americans and other Hispanics, by Cornell's Dr. Sobal and colleagues, suggests that some groups gain weight because of changes in diet and activity levels. Dr. Sobal notes that compared with mainstream white Americans, Hispanics may cope better with increasing fatness. Black women, whose culture is also more size-tolerant, may nevertheless feel pressed to conform to a different ideal. A variety of research has shown that black women lack the size anxieties of their white sisters, although they tend to fret more about size as their wealth and status improve. Still, stigma associated with America's growing fatness may compound existing biases against certain groups.
Women are more likely than men to be obese.
And obesity rates peak among Americans ages 50 to 59. So bias against fat may translate into extra bias against minorities, women and older Americans. Any such shift would push fat attitudes back no more than about a century. Gluttony, of course, had long been denounced in the Christian church. But the focus was greed, not fatness, says R. Marie Griffith, of Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion.