Looking out for her, someone has made sure this bebé has a shady spot, something to lean against, and a green dulce to hold. A clean cloth and makeshift padding protect her young legs against the ridges and edge of the crate. It will take equal care and more to protect her from the nutrition-related chronic diseases that may threaten her and her contemporaries later in life. The high rates of diabetes, coronary heart disease, overweight, and obesity that are the daily realities of her parents' and grandparents' generations and the high rates of overweight among youngsters cast their own long shadows.
Spikes in the incidence or prevalence of some nutrition-related chronic diseases have been detected in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, rates exacerbated by poverty, low educational attainment, the socioeconomic challenges of single parenting, and unemployment. Cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, diabetes, obesity, anemia, neural tube defects, and osteoporosis along with impaired immunity and food insecurity pose serious threats to the health of the valley's families, as indicated below:
- The leading cause of death for Latinos or Hispanics is heart-related diseases and stroke followed by cancer.
- Diabetes is one of the top five causes of death for Latino and Hispanic adults.
- Among U.S., Texas, and Lower Rio Grande Valley non-Hispanic white and Hispanic populations 1996 to 2000, the highest rates of cervical cancer incidence and mortality were among Lower Rio Grande Valley Hispanic women.
- In Texas, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children has more than doubled in the last twenty years, and in the 2000-2001 school year, prevalence of overweight among boys was highest in the state public health region that includes the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
- Among Mexican-American women, incidence of anemia during pregnancy has been reported as high as 29% in the third trimester, and a combination of diabetes and lack of prenatal care is found 4.4 times more often among Hispanic women of 30 to 39 years of age than among white women of the same age.
- Food insecurity and food insecurity with hunger were more prevalent in Texas from 1996 to 2001 than in almost any other state or in the United States overall, and high poverty rates, participation in food assistance programs, and other evidence suggest food insecurity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley may be of dramatic proportions.