Food Desesrts

In my last article I told a story of an eight or nine year old boy who didn't know what a tomato was. This is an example of how so many people are not getting the healthy food they need. A food desert is an urban area where it's difficult to find fresh, affordable, healthy and nutritious food. One reason for this is because many of these areas lack places to get this type of food such as grocery stores, or farmers markets. Instead, these areas have lots of convenient stores or fast food restaurants, where food is cheaper and easier to get.

There are many smaller problems created by food deserts that are often overlooked by the government or USDA. For instance, many people in these areas don't speak good English, so they have trouble understanding what food they should and shouldn't be eating. Another problem is that people in these areas also might have trouble finding food that suits their needs such as lactose-intolerance, gluten free, or other food allergies. Healthier foods are also generally more expensive, and even if someone lives near a grocery store they might not be able to afford the healthier options.

Living in a food desert can create many problems for someone's physical and/or mental health. Children of low-income families living in these areas have much higher rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other diet-related conditions. These problems can lead to much more serious health problems, that often become fatal.

In the First Lady's "Lets Move!" program, plans to allow people in these food deserts to gain access to healthy food, by developing grocery stores, small retailers, corner stores, and farmers markets with fresh and healthy food.

"The USDA defines what's considered a food desert and which areas will be helped by this initiative:  To qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles)."

 

Sources: http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts

 

http://www.foodispower.org/food-deserts/