Comments on: Food choices inferior in poorer neighborhoods http://www.medrants.com/archives/1378 Contemplating medicine and the health care system Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:42:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: John Anderson http://www.medrants.com/archives/1378/comment-page-1#comment-2142 John Anderson Tue, 05 Aug 2003 01:30:37 +0000 http://medrants.com/archives/2003/08/04/food-choices-inferior-in-poorer-neighborhoods/#comment-2142 Nertz. The poor neighborhoods "were more likely to have convenience stores or small neighborhood markets than supermarkets and chain stores" is the key. These are conversions of the first floor of a residence, they'd be crazy to stocj anything that will spoil in less than two weeks, so of <i>course</i> their meats are pre-packaged (eg Oscar Mayer) and fruits and veggies mostly canned. And how likely is call-mom-down-from-upstairs-to-cut-the-meat to be licensed an unionized? I could have told them the same things as this study from here on the other coast, and added it is not likely to change owing to real-estate costs, insurance costs, and fear of such neighborhoods. These twits probably think the people who live there don't want supermarkets and will spend lots of money "educating" us. Bah! Nertz. The poor neighborhoods “were more likely to have convenience stores or small neighborhood markets than supermarkets and chain stores” is the key. These are conversions of the first floor of a residence, they’d be crazy to stocj anything that will spoil in less than two weeks, so of course their meats are pre-packaged (eg Oscar Mayer) and fruits and veggies mostly canned. And how likely is call-mom-down-from-upstairs-to-cut-the-meat to be licensed an unionized?

I could have told them the same things as this study from here on the other coast, and added it is not likely to change owing to real-estate costs, insurance costs, and fear of such neighborhoods. These twits probably think the people who live there don’t want supermarkets and will spend lots of money “educating” us.

Bah!

]]> By: Frances http://www.medrants.com/archives/1378/comment-page-1#comment-2141 Frances Tue, 05 Aug 2003 00:07:06 +0000 http://medrants.com/archives/2003/08/04/food-choices-inferior-in-poorer-neighborhoods/#comment-2141 "One cannot sort out causation from such a survey study. Perhaps the store in poorer neighborhoods only carry those food which their customers will buy." While I agree that this requires further investigation, one cannot ignore the basic fact that lower nutrition foods (high sugar, high salt, high carbohydrates, low fiber, low protein) are considerably less expensive than more nutritious foods. That fact indicates that it probably really isn't so much an issue of choice on the part of the customers (or, one could argue that while it is now an issue of customer choice, it is because poorer people have learned, over time, to choose those less nutritious foods from their families/parents/guardians, who originally had to choose them because of their financial situation). “One cannot sort out causation from such a survey study. Perhaps the store in poorer neighborhoods only carry those food which their customers will buy.”

While I agree that this requires further investigation, one cannot ignore the basic fact that lower nutrition foods (high sugar, high salt, high carbohydrates, low fiber, low protein) are considerably less expensive than more nutritious foods. That fact indicates that it probably really isn’t so much an issue of choice on the part of the customers (or, one could argue that while it is now an issue of customer choice, it is because poorer people have learned, over time, to choose those less nutritious foods from their families/parents/guardians, who originally had to choose them because of their financial situation).

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