Protecting Black Life Means Fighting Obesity Where It Starts

The National Urban League examines how grocery-store scarcity and abundant fast food in low-income communities have driven a Black obesity epidemic, with 49.6% of Black Americans and the highest rate among Black women. Only 8% of Black Americans live in a census tract with a supermarket, fueling disparities in heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The piece frames good nutrition as a matter of life or death and calls for advocacy, workforce, and policy investment to close treatment and healthy-food access gaps.