The best advice you can give an emigrant, then, would be to not drink the water. What other common denominator can there be?
Thus far, the study has been limited to people of Mexican descent, which means an expansion of the study pool must be undertaken. Knowing that Hispanics migrated to all parts of the United States, it's clearly not a regional issue.
Can it be the air? Should immigrants not breath the air?
Not only do recent immigrants tend to get fat, but their descendants are far more likely to become obese than those distant cousins who stayed behind in Mexico.
Naturally, scientists want to uncover the cause. If they can figure it out, they'd have a strong clue as to the source of American obesity, now at epidemic proportions.
When the armed services can't get enough recruits to meet fitness standards due to obesity, it's a matter of national security more than health.
It's being suggested that American food plays a large role, but in ways not yet clear. Sure there's McDonald's on every corner, and the sugary drinks, but has no one considered what is in the water and the air in the U.S. as compared to Mexico?
Or is it not quite so simple a solution?
Maybe it's more to do with all the cars that allow people to not walk, and the steady income that allows people to not go hungry. It's the affordable video games that allow kids to not engage in physical play, and it's the fear of lawsuits against primary level schools that allow the kids to not have outdoor recreation during the school day.
It's a lot of things, not one simple thing like super-sized fizzy drinks. It's about having the money to buy all that you couldn't afford when you were scratching out an existence on a small plot of land in Mexico, where you knew you'd go hungry if it didn't rain on your maize crop.
But if you're planning on an extended stay in the U.S., you'd best exercise a bit of caution and not drink the water or breath the air and, perhaps, stay away from the food.
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