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By Dayna Reyes, Reporter
WESLACO, Texas — High rates of obesity across the Rio Grande Valley do not mean the region is free from hunger, according to Dr. Rashmi Chandran, Chief Executive Officer of the AltaCair Foundation.
Speaking as a panelist at a forum titled “Hunger in the RGV: A Call to Action,” Chandran tackled what she described as a persistent local myth: that a community struggling with high body mass index metrics cannot simultaneously face severe food insecurity.
The event, hosted by the Office of Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez alongside non-partisan advocacy group Bread for the World, was held at South Texas College’s Mid-Valley Campus in Weslaco.
“The one thing I wanted to address was that there is a common misconception, especially in our community, that the Valley has an obesity problem so how can we have a hunger problem?” Chandran told attendees. “It even came up in a lot of social media comments under this announcement for this event… This is why most people think: how can we be the obesity capital and then we have a hunger issue?”
Addressing the gathering, Chandran emphasized that obesity is a complex medical diagnosis influenced by thousands of physiological factors, ranging from organ function and fluid retention to underlying cardiovascular issues.
“Obesity does not mean lack of hunger,” Chandran stated. “In fact, hunger can cause obesity.”
To underscore her point, Chandran pointed to local data demonstrating the direct correlation between poverty, food insecurity, and elevated obesity rates across South Texas communities.
She cited research conducted by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) examining local colonias. In a survey sampling between 600 and 1,000 households in local colonias, researchers discovered that 78 percent faced serious food insecurity. Within those same households, the obesity rate stood at 55.6 percent — meaning more than one in every two individuals was classified as obese.
Chandran urged the public and community leaders to abandon the assumption that physical weight rules out nutritional deprivation, warning that the misconception actively harms regional relief efforts.
“Obesity definitely does not mean lack of hunger, and I would request that it be a big takeaway from this discussion today,” Chandran said. “We [need to] talk about that to our general public, because that stops them from even volunteering, donating, and thinking about hunger and food insecurity as an issue.”
Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of Dr. Chandran’s remarks at the Hunger in the RGV forum:
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