Access to grocers doesn't improve diets, study finds
The results run counter to the idea that more supermarkets can curb obesity in low-income neighborhoods.
July 17, 2011|By Daniela Hernandez, Los Angeles Times
Better access to supermarkets — long touted as a way to curb obesity in low-income neighborhoods — doesn't improve people's diets, according to new research. The study, which tracked thousands of people in several large cities for 15 years, found that people didn't eat more fruits and vegetables when they had supermarkets available in their neighborhoods.
Instead, income — and proximity to fast-food restaurants — were the strongest factors in food choice.
The results throw some cold water on the idea that lack of access to fresh produce and other healthful foods is a major driver in the disproportionate rates of obesity among the poor, or that simply encouraging grocery chains to open in deprived areas will fix the problem, said study lead author Barry Popkin, director of the Nutrition Transition Program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
For one thing, experts said, grocery stores are brimming with choices that are every bit as fattening as fast-food meals. For another, the prices of healthful grocery store foods are often higher than fast-food prices.
"This raises the serious issue of how we get people to eat healthy," Popkin said.
The study, published last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at more than 5,000 African American and Caucasian men and women in Birmingham, Ala., Chicago, Minneapolis and Oakland between 1985 and 2001. The researchers assessed participants' diets over the years and tracked how far they lived from supermarkets and fast-food restaurants. The study did not measure their weight or body mass index.
As other studies have reported, the researchers found that living near fast-food restaurants was associated with a greater consumption of fast food, especially, in this case, among low-income men. But the scientists also found that easy access to supermarkets was not linked to a greater consumption of healthful foods such as fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, lean meats and whole grains.
Other studies, Popkin said, had found the same thing. In one, the introduction of a large supermarket did not increase fruit and vegetable consumption in a poor community in Scotland; in another, a 2011 survey of Latino immigrant women in New York City found no relationship between supermarket proximity and eating more fruits and vegetables.
"The cheapest calories come from fried foods, chips and sodas," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, who wrote a commentary accompanying the report.
The findings are significant because in recent years, policymakers have been pushing for guidelines that limit the number of fast-food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods based on studies reporting lower obesity rates in communities with more supermarkets and fewer fast-food chains.
In 2008, for example, Los Angeles Councilwoman Jan Perry sponsored legislation calling for a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants, and for incentives for opening grocery stores, in South L.A. Though the moratorium has expired, some restrictions on where fast-food restaurants may open are still in place.
"We've had great success in building grocery stores," Perry said. But, she added, selecting healthful foods from a store is up to the individual.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/17/health/la-he-food-deserts-20110712
) in attempting to change peoples' eating habits for the better.