Jenice Armstrong: Fighting obesity

I ONCE HAD a woman at a party tell me "You don't look like you could get fat."

Clearly, this woman knew nothing about me or my family's struggles with obesity. As she went on, it became clear she'd bought into the fallacy that obesity, like aging, is inevitable. The older you get, the more pounds your body supposedly piles on. I could sense her shoulder-shrugging attitude and air of complacency on the issue. Mind you, this was an attractive woman, with long, well-manicured nails and perfectly coiffed hair, and I knew without asking that she didn't believe that her own morbid obesity was a big deal. It probably was the norm for her.

After all, four out of five adult black women are overweight or obese. That's a staggering statistic, isn't it?

I stumbled across this appalling fact from the U.S. Office of Minority Health. At first, I didn't believe it. "No way. This couldn't be true," I said to myself. As I was absorbing it, my mind drifted back to a favorite photo I have of myself posing with a group of close female relatives.

It was taken at a party, so we are dressed festively and everyone is smiling. There are five of us in the photo and four of the women pictured are fat.

According to the Office of Minority Health, which falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, African-American women are 60 percent more likely to be obese than their non-Hispanic white sisters.

And the obesity rate for white women is out of control as well.

My apologies for straying into Daily News fitness columnist Kimberly Garrison's area of expertise, but I've been obsessing about the four-out-of-five statistic ever since reading it.

I mentioned it to Garrison when she stopped by my office the other day, and then on Tuesday, as I was jogging along Kelly Drive, I found myself relaying the information to another friend and running partner.

I've been obsessing because unlike some health problems, obesity can be prevented. First lady Michelle Obama is right on with her anti-childhood-obesity initiative, "Let's Move." (According to the city Health Department, nearly 70 percent of children in North Philadelphia qualify as overweight or obese.)

America's children need to get more exercise, as do their parents.

In fact, most of us would benefit from a massive lifestyle shift, one that starts in small ways such as watching TV less and walking more.