CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — On a new report released by wallethub, Corpus Christi is ranked the eighth most unhealthy city in the country. So KRIS 6 News asked Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi's Dr. Elizabeth Loika to give her thoughts as to why this report is true.
"Oh, it’s sobering. It doesn’t surprise me. This has been long and coming," Dr. Lokia said.
WalletHub's study included 182 cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities — across four key categories: health care, food, fitness and green space. Dr. Loika isn't surprised we scored low for a number of reasons, one of which is the lack of access to healthcare for some people in Corpus Christi.
"They’re missing what we call primary care. And primary care is almost an art-form. It's where you see your primary care provider and you see this person on an ongoing basis," Dr. Loika said.
She also adds that ongoing care could help some health issues like obesity.
"So if there is this diagnosis of obesity, you can see this person again and again. The why and the how and get the appropriate labs," Dr. Loika said.
Another culprit is the food we eat. KRIS 6 News reporter Tony Jaramillo spoke with Daniel Flynn, a local nursing student who gave us his perspective on Corpus Christi food after moving from a bigger city.
"You go to the urban cities they have a lot of healthier places to eat at. Over here it’s a lot of Tex-Mex. It’s good but it’s not healthy," Flynn said.
Dr. Loika mentioned that the obesity rate in pediatrics is alarming and that a lot of food marketing is targeted for children.
"Here you have a child that watches a lot of TV. They see these ads. And a lot of the marketing is geared for these children to see these ads," Dr. Loika said.
She said with all the unhealthy food marketed, parents must make informed health-conscious food decisions.
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