The downside of assimilation:
According to a 2002 study in Human Biology, an immigrant’s risk of smoking, obesity, and hypertension grow yearly. A person who immigrated to the U.S. within the last five years has half the risk of an American-born of getting a chronic condition. After living here for more than 15 years, a person is only 24 percent less likely to have a chronic condition. … “The more ‘they’ become like ‘us,’ immigrants and immigrant children fail to maintain their health advantages,” write Samuel Noh and Violet Kaspar, psychiatry professors in Toronto. Research suggests that the causes of decline are diverse—the stress of acculturation and racial discrimination, poverty, or limited health care.
The Dish 