Curbside Produce to Curb Obesity
The proximity and concentration of fast-food outlets are a factor in the incidence of obesity. Can cities and public health officials find novel approaches to improve our nutritional health?
This morning's story comes to us from Canada where investigators found that people were 25% less likely to be obese if they lived in an area with fewer fast-food outlets than supermarkets, "The proximity of the obesogenic environment to individuals appears to be an important factor in their risk for obesity."
Would you agree that, as a specie, we'll get our nutritional needs where the least effort is required? Why would we expand energy to then have to refuel? It's counter-nature (unless, of course, we want to lose weight.)
In the Canadian study, researchers drew the line at 800 meters. What is that? Half a block or so? I draw the line at curbside.
I was driving my clunky car through the chaotic stone-paved streets of Asuncion (Paraguay) this morning when I came across a stand at roadside. I rolled down my window and the stand attendant started to load my canvas bag with his merchandise: bananas, pears, apples, white lettuce, baby carrots, red onions, yellow peppers, eggs from the farm and fresh cilantro. And I thought how lucky I was to work in a third-world country where you could still buy fresh produce at curbside. Not that the big marketing machines are absent. At the next big light, I was assailed by the soda vendor, the chip peddler, and the candyman but I did not roll down my window.
So I say, bring back the fruit-and-veggie stand at the street corner, at the school gate, at the baseball field. Let's have cities issue inexpensive food cart licenses, provided that the carts only carry pre-approved healthy merchandise. It could help us hunt and gather close to home and help us keep that so-called obesity "epidemic" in check.
reference: Spence JC, et al "Relation between local food environments and obesity among adults" BMC Public Health 2009; DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-9-192.
Would you agree that, as a specie, we'll get our nutritional needs where the least effort is required? Why would we expand energy to then have to refuel? It's counter-nature (unless, of course, we want to lose weight.)
In the Canadian study, researchers drew the line at 800 meters. What is that? Half a block or so? I draw the line at curbside.
I was driving my clunky car through the chaotic stone-paved streets of Asuncion (Paraguay) this morning when I came across a stand at roadside. I rolled down my window and the stand attendant started to load my canvas bag with his merchandise: bananas, pears, apples, white lettuce, baby carrots, red onions, yellow peppers, eggs from the farm and fresh cilantro. And I thought how lucky I was to work in a third-world country where you could still buy fresh produce at curbside. Not that the big marketing machines are absent. At the next big light, I was assailed by the soda vendor, the chip peddler, and the candyman but I did not roll down my window.
So I say, bring back the fruit-and-veggie stand at the street corner, at the school gate, at the baseball field. Let's have cities issue inexpensive food cart licenses, provided that the carts only carry pre-approved healthy merchandise. It could help us hunt and gather close to home and help us keep that so-called obesity "epidemic" in check.
reference: Spence JC, et al "Relation between local food environments and obesity among adults" BMC Public Health 2009; DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-9-192.