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African-Americans frequently look towards race and economic factors as our biggest challenges, but there are self-inflicted problems that are literally killing us. The recent and untimely deaths of Heavy D and Patrice O’Neal has made the health issues that arise from being overweight very hard to ignore.

According to HuffPost, obesity is a “full-blown crisis in the Black community, specifically among Black men.”

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Dr. Mwata Dyson, a health care consultant based in New York City adds, “The biggest health care crisis we are facing as a community is the crisis of obesity. We are behind the eight ball.”

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Find out the alarming stats around Black obesity, and find out about how one former NFL player was scared straight by visiting HuffPost.

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