Latino Obesity Foundation
Latino health

Obesity and Latino health

Latino communities in the United States are diverse — in country of origin, language, income, food traditions, immigration history, and health. What follows describes patterns seen in population data, not a description of any individual person or family.

A note on how we talk about this. “Latino” and “Hispanic” describe tens of millions of people with different ancestries, cuisines, circumstances, and health profiles. Population statistics describe averages across very large groups. They do not predict any one person’s health, and they are not a judgment about culture or cooking.

What the data show

Obesity is more common among Hispanic/Latino adults than among U.S. adults overall, and the same pattern appears in children. Obesity-related conditions follow.

37.5%
of Hispanic/Latino adults had obesity, compared with 33.4% of U.S. adults overall.
U.S. HHS Office of Minority Health, drawing on CDC National Center for Health Statistics data, 2024. Based on self-reported height and weight.
40.3%
of all U.S. adults had obesity when height and weight were measured directly, not self-reported.
CDC/NCHS Data Brief No. 508, NHANES, August 2021 – August 2023.
11.3%
of Hispanic/Latino adults have diagnosed diabetes, versus 10.0% of U.S. adults overall.
U.S. HHS Office of Minority Health, CDC National Diabetes Surveillance System, 2024.
26.6%
of Hispanic/Latino children ages 6–11 had obesity — about 38% higher than the U.S. average for that age group.
U.S. HHS Office of Minority Health, NHANES 2015–2018.
Related conditions

Conditions linked to obesity

Obesity raises the risk of several conditions. Risk is not certainty — and for most of these, earlier detection meaningfully changes the outcome.

Type 2 diabetes

Excess body fat, particularly around the abdomen, makes the body less responsive to insulin. Diagnosed diabetes is more common among Hispanic/Latino adults (11.3%) than U.S. adults overall (10.0%), and diabetes-related kidney failure is substantially more common.

High blood pressure

Hypertension usually causes no symptoms, which is why it is often found late. It is a leading contributor to stroke, heart disease, and kidney damage, and it is highly treatable once identified.

Cardiovascular disease

Obesity contributes to heart disease both directly and through blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar.

Fatty liver disease

Fat accumulation in the liver is common with obesity and can progress to inflammation and scarring. It is frequently silent, and it is identified through blood tests and imaging.

Obstructive sleep apnea

Repeated interruptions of breathing during sleep. Loud snoring, gasping at night, and daytime sleepiness are common signs. Treatment often improves energy, blood pressure, and mood.

Joint pain and reduced mobility

Extra load on knees, hips, and the lower back can limit activity, which in turn makes weight management harder.

Most of these conditions are silent at first. That is the case for checking rather than waiting for symptoms. A basic visit can cover blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and liver tests.
Barriers

What gets in the way of care

These barriers are structural. Naming them is not an excuse — it is how solutions get designed.

Language

Health information and clinical visits conducted in a second language increase the chance that instructions are misunderstood or that questions go unasked.

Insurance and cost

Coverage gaps affect whether preventive visits, medications, and specialist care are realistically available.

Time and work schedules

Hourly work, multiple jobs, and shift schedules make weekday appointments and regular exercise difficult.

Food cost and availability

What is affordable and nearby shapes daily eating more than nutrition knowledge does.

Health literacy

Medical information is often written far above the reading level of the people it is meant to help — in any language.

Weight stigma and mistrust

Previous experiences of being blamed or dismissed lead people to postpone care.

Culture is an asset, not an obstacle

A common and damaging assumption is that Latino food traditions are the problem and that health requires abandoning them. That framing is both inaccurate and counterproductive.

Traditional Latin American cooking is built on beans, lentils, corn, squash, tomatoes, chiles, avocado, citrus, rice, fresh herbs, eggs, fish, and slow-cooked stews — foods with real nutritional strengths. What has changed most in recent decades is not the tradition; it is portion sizes, the share of ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks in the daily diet, the amount of frying, and how much time families have to cook at all.

Family-centered eating is also a genuine advantage. Households that cook and eat together have a structure most public health programs are trying to create from scratch.

Our approach is to work with these traditions — adjusting preparation, portions, and frequency — rather than replacing them with unfamiliar food that nobody will keep eating.

Practical healthy living Treatment options