HES 434-Podcast

Approximately 54 million people in the US are food insecure and 23.5 million live in food deserts, where healthy and affordable food is hard to access. This is a result of socioeconomics and structural racism, leading to fewer healthy food options in minority and low-income areas. Research shows that living in a food desert may not have significant health outcomes, but low-income areas have higher rates of cardiovascular disease. Efforts to address food deserts, such as expanding supermarkets, have had mixed results and can lead to negative social consequences. More research is needed to understand and solve this issue. New analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges and USDA shows that 54 million people are food insecure and 23.5 million live in food deserts. This would mean that one in six American struggles to eat daily. Let's talk about that. Hello everyone. Today, we're going to be discussing the topic revolving food deserts and what they are and some of the health issues revolving those and talk a little bit about some solutions that have come into light. So, as shopping is done with the click of a button, we often forget that there are some individuals who do not have this privilege. As there have been many stores that have evolved to shop online, as this has been convenient for some with the high prices and fees, it has made it difficult for some people to afford these healthy products. The issue of finding affordable and healthy food has always been an issue in the United States for years. This is often referred to as food deserts. Now, what is a food desert? A food desert is defined as areas where affordable and healthy foods are hard to access. Oftentimes, we see food deserts in common areas that are, according to the food deserts, what you know are large are found in large number of minorities, low-income people, and areas where there's not that much reliable public transportation. As things do not occur out of nowhere, there are many reasons why there are food deserts, such as socioeconomics and structural racism. For instance, there could be areas where residents are unemployed or have a low income, and because these healthy foods are often expensive, individuals cannot afford these products. Often, in these areas, we see more fast food and more fast food than supermarkets. These are often referred to as supermarket redlining, in which there are more fast-food chains, inconvenience stores, that often carry highly processed products and unhealthy foods that are on the affordable side, but they do lack that nutrient. In terms of structural racism, in terms of research, there has been evidence indicating that black and Latino communities have fewer access to these healthy products and groceries compared to their white communities. Now, we're going to be looking at some research. First, we're going to dig a little bit into this observational study called Living in Food Deserts and Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients. This study looked into seeing if there was any correlation between cardiovascular disease and the access of food. They gathered over 5,000 participants, with individuals ranging from the age of 18 or older that were found in the area of Atlanta, Georgia. They gathered data regarding sex, race, BMI, medical history, smoking history, and level of education was also collected. So, if they had severe anemia, cancer, heart transplant, or any cognitive disorders, they were not considered. But they used the information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine if the individual had poor or adequate access to healthy foods, if the individual had low or high income, or even both. These individuals were followed for 3.5 years and noticed that there was not that significant health outcomes. The results of the study found out that the individuals living in this poor access to healthy foods were more likely to be black and young with completing a higher level of education than those with a favorable food access area. They noted that those with food, the poor food access had a lower prevalence of smoking and a higher density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and those are the HDLs, and were more likely to reside in urban areas. They noted that there was not much difference in rate of cardiovascular outcomes based on areas with poor and adequate access to healthy food. They did note that in terms of income participants who lived in low income areas were young, female, black, and had a lower educational level. They noted that these people were less likely to live in urban areas and had a higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, BMI, smoking, higher total cholesterol volume with higher LDLs. They noted that those living in low-income areas were 54% higher risk of myocardial infraction. Now while this study did have some nice perspectives, they had some limitations, and that being that it was kind of still single-centered, so that the fact that it's focused primarily on that area of the Atlanta, Georgia, we can't say that it could be widely used to talk about the whole country, but it's a good thing to look at certain areas. Now we're going to be looking into a meta-analysis called the changing landscape of food deserts. This looked at the impact of food deserts on one's health, and that is the recommendation of areas that should be investigated for future research. They looked into residential areas where they had low access areas. They noted that these areas have declined since 2010. From 2010 to 2016, they noted that the population living in limited supermarkets access areas declined from 6.8 to 5.8, but the number of low-income communities had increased from more than 5% to 2010. They noted that state-by-state there has been some improvement, but there's still some declines of areas such as Maine and Nevada, where they saw a little bit of increase. They discussed the influence of trends of grocery, retail, and food direct communities. This was a possible solution that was discussed in many studies, and they actually discussed why this wasn't a possible solution. They noted that while throughout the years there have been some expansion of Walmart stores opening across areas, there has also been some stores that have been closing due to this expansion. They saw that over 200 stores have closed, at least three food deserts, and 31 neighborhoods in 15 states were created. They noted that as Walmart entered a region, there were some social concerns as there was trends of reduced wages, reduced benefits, and a decrease in employment levels. There were they used the example of a new Walmart in Harlem, New York, that they saw 25% of nearby stores go out of business within the year. And this really took into the fact that like there have been possible solutions, but why we have seen such a steady rate or an increase in food deserts. But regardless, there still has to be more research being done about this issue. This was just looking to one area. We could look at other stores as well, like King Soup or Safe Place. But regardless, this is an important issue that should be discussed. For instance, the innovation and technology where GMOs are made to be able to produce food quicker and relatively larger. But they are, we still have this problem of millions of Americans having no food. There are still children that go hungry and oftentimes there are families who must decide if their paychecks should be spent on food or rent. But even in the cases that they do purchase product, they often go for those that do not have that much nutritional value that in the end will cost them to increase their risk of cardiovascular disease. But now, what is your intake of food deserts?