VIDEO
Access to Nutritious Foods
The environment strongly influences food purchasing and consumption behaviors.
The ability to obtain nutritious and affordable food is of particular importance to individuals of low socioeconomic status (SES), who must stretch limited resources to meet food and other vital needs. Yet, low SES individuals are disproportionately impacted by poor food access and high rates of obesity. Low SES individuals confront many barriers to the procurement of healthy food, including living in areas that are termed “food desserts.” his term refers to areas in which it is difficult to obtain a variety of healthy foods at affordable prices. Reasons for this difficulty include an absence of supermarkets, limited healthy food available at local markets, and inadequate transportation.
Absence of Supermarkets
Low SES individuals disproportionately live in areas with fewer large supermarkets than their higher income counterparts. Middle- and upper-income neighborhoods have more than twice as many supermarkets per capita than low-income neighborhoods.
Residents of low SES neighborhoods are more reliant on smaller shops, convenience stores, and bodegas to acquire food. As such, compared to people living in higher-income areas, residents of low-income urban neighborhoods have limited access to high-quality food, enjoy fewer options in the variety of goods that are available to them, and pay higher prices for the groceries that are available.
Limited Availability of Healthy Foods
Food availability in grocery stores is related to the diets of residents in the area of the store. Small corner stores typically do not sell the great a breadth of foods as do larger supermarkets, and available food choices tend to be more costly. Because of slower stock turnover, corner stores tend to stock more nonperishable foods than do larger supermarkets. These items require little sales experience to sell, and do not spoil or need care. As such, individuals residing in areas where corner stores provide the only available food choices may be confronted with the inability to access healthy foods, because those foods are not on their store shelves or are not affordable choices.
Inadequate Transportation
Residents of many low SES communities lack access to a supermarket within a reasonable walking distance of their homes. This group may also experience difficulty traveling to distant shopping facilities because of a lack of private transportation. Without cars, residents must depend on public transit, taxis, or friends to travel to supermarkets outside of their neighborhoods. Even with sufficient public transportation, transporting large, heavy bags of groceries can be difficult on buses or subways. Taxi services are costly and friends are often unavailable or unreliable. Therefore, absence of proximate supermarkets often represents an inability to purchase nutritious, affordable food, particularly fresh fruits, vegetables, and other perishables. Healthy diets are compromised, contributing to a high prevalence of obesity.
Ready Availability of Fast Food
While the abundance of fast-food restaurants in low SES neighborhoods may provide a source of convenient and relatively cheap, tasty food, these establishments typically do not offer nutritious foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables. Instead, a typical fast-food meal is very calorie dense. Individuals who eat at fast-food restaurants tend to consume more fats, sugars, and carbohydrates and fewer fruits and no starchy vegetables than individuals who do not eat fast food.
Federal Nutrition Programs
Federal nutrition programs can increase access to high-quality, nutritious foods and improve nutrition education for limited-resource families. Programs, such as food stamps and child nutrition initiatives support access to nutritious foods through supermarkets and farmers’ markets in low SES neighborhoods. Yet, in many low SES neighborhoods, food stamp recipients are still at risk for food insecurity, defined as a “lack of access to enough food to fully meet basic needs at all times,” due to the lack of such foods at local markets. Moreover, many individuals and families who are eligible for food stamps are not enrolled in the program.
See also: Food Insecurity and Obesity; Hunger; Obesity and Socioeconomic Status.
Bibliography:
A. Cheadle, et al., “Community-Level Comparisons between the Grocery Store Environment and Individual Dietary Practices,” Preventive Medicine (v.20/2, 1991);
K. Morland, et al., “Neighborhood Characteristics Associated with the Location of Food Stores and Food Service Places,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine (v.22/1, 2002);
R. Nayga, Jr, “Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Obesity in the
G. Turrell, et al., “Socioeconomic Differences in Food Purchasing Behaviour and Suggested Implications for Diet-Related Health Promotion,” Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (v.15/5, 2002).
