UT School of Public Health Launches Farmer's Market to Combat Obesity
To fight an epidemic of obesity and its life-threatening complications in the Brownsville area, faculty and students at The University of Texas School of Public Health Brownsville Regional Campus have come up with a strong weapon: a farmer’s market loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables
UT School of Public Health announced, "Research has shown that the predominately Hispanic community of Cameron County in the Valley has twice the national average of diabetes, a co-morbidity of obesity." According to the Texas Diabetes Council 2008 Fact sheet, Hispanics ages 18-44 have the highest prevalence of diabetes (6.8 percent) among all ethnic age groups in Texas. In 2002, The U.S.-Mexico Border Diabetes Prevention and Control Project noted diabetes as the fourth leading cause of death among Hispanics in Texas.
The Brownsville Farmer’s Market, a collaborative effort to provide locally grown produce and increase the awareness of chronic diseases associated with obesity, is the brainchild of Belinda Reininger, Dr.P.H., associate professor of behavioral sciences at the UT School of Public Health. The market provides affordable fresh produce to the community, and it provides local farmers an outlet to sell their produce. It also gives health care experts the opportunity to educate shoppers on nutrition, obesity and diabetes.
Through a grant from the Texas Department of State Health Services, farmer’s market partner Su Clinica Familiar provides a voucher system for low-income families, who can receive $10 in vouchers to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.
The idea was developed over a year ago when graduate students, faculty members and the Texas Department of State Health Services saw a desperate need to provide residents with resources to prevent obesity and diabetes. Part of their plan of action was to research the current fruit and vegetable consumption of the Brownsville community.
“Based on our initial assessments of the community, it was clear that creating access to fresh fruits and vegetables was needed. As with most behavioral change efforts, education alone was not enough; environmental changes were needed too. That is when we partnered with stakeholders, including public officials, to create the Brownsville Farmer's Market,” Reininger said.
“Many of the diabetes cases are related to the problem of obesity, which is beginning in childhood and adolescence years,” said Gowen, a long-time local resident and a driving force behind the market. “A significant portion of the obesity problem here is because local diets are high in carbohydrates and include very few vegetables and fruits.”
In 2008, faculty of the Brownsville regional campus led by Susan Fisher-Hoch, M.D., professor of epidemiology at the UT School of Public Health, conducted a study on obesity in Cameron County. Fisher-Hoch’s analysisfound 52.2 percent of Cameron County adults older than 18 are considered obese (body mass index of 30 or higher) compared to the national average of 28 percent. The area also showed 27 percent of adolescents, particularly boys, are obese compared with 16 percent nationally.
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