Black Women Can Have Bigger Waists, Still Be Healthy

By two measures, black women could be bigger without raising health risk
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 26, 2011 4:04 AM CST
Healthy Waistlines Could Be Bigger for Black Women
A new study says the black women can have larger waistlines than white women before they become high risk for heart disease and diabetes.   (?Pink Sherbet Photography)

Black women can have larger waistlines and be larger in general than white women and still be relatively healthy, according to new research.The study of 6,400 volunteers examined abdominal obesity and body-mass index and found that black women had higher thresholds than white women for both measures before they became "high risk," Reuters reports.

BMI and waistline obesity are two of the most common ways of measuring obesity, which correlates to the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other weight-related health issues. For white women, a BMI of 30 is the limit before becoming high-risk, but for black women, the limit is 33, finds the study. Similarly, for white women, the threshold for waistlines is 35 inches, but for black women it is 38 inches.
(More obesity stories.)

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