With the obesity epidemic in full swing and millions of
American living in neighborhoods where fruits and vegetables are hard to
come by, the Obama administration thought it saw a solution: fund
stores that will stock fresh, affordable produce in these deprived
areas.
But
now, three years and $500 million into the federal Healthy Food
Financing Initiative, there's a problem: A study suggests it's not
working.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/health-care/bad-news-for-obama-s-antiobesity-effort-20140203
"Unfortunately, more fresh food closer to home probably does nothing for folks at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Obesity levels don’t drop when low-income city neighborhoods have or get grocery stores. A 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed no connection between access to grocery stores and more healthful diets using 15 years’ worth of data from more than 5,000 people in five cities. One 2012 study showed that the local food environment did not influence the diet of middle-school children in California. Another 2012 study, published in Social Science and Medicine, used national data on store availability and a multiyear study of grade-schoolers to show no connection between food environment and diet. And last month, a study in Health Affairs examined one of the Philadelphia grocery stores that opened with help from the Fresh Food Financing Initiative. The authors found that the store had no significant impact on reducing obesity or increasing daily fruit and vegetable consumption in the four years since it opened."
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20140307-food-deserts-arent-the-problem.ece
"Unfortunately, more fresh food closer to home probably does nothing for folks at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Obesity levels don’t drop when low-income city neighborhoods have or get grocery stores. A 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed no connection between access to grocery stores and more healthful diets using 15 years’ worth of data from more than 5,000 people in five cities. One 2012 study showed that the local food environment did not influence the diet of middle-school children in California. Another 2012 study, published in Social Science and Medicine, used national data on store availability and a multiyear study of grade-schoolers to show no connection between food environment and diet. And last month, a study in Health Affairs examined one of the Philadelphia grocery stores that opened with help from the Fresh Food Financing Initiative. The authors found that the store had no significant impact on reducing obesity or increasing daily fruit and vegetable consumption in the four years since it opened."
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/sunday-commentary/20140307-food-deserts-arent-the-problem.ece
No comments:
Post a Comment