What Should You Know about Food Deserts and Their Health Risks?
“Food deserts” is a term that is coined now in nutritional literature that poses serious public health threats in the current era which mainly refers to those residential areas that have extremely limited access to nutritious and affordable foods. While most families in a scale of public communities across the world always strive for better nutrition, the families comprising members of different age groups, from the pediatric, and pregnant to the geriatric risk groups, the importance of healthy eating is not usually underestimated.
In a food desert, in spite of trying to consume nutrient-sensitive foods like plant proteins, dairy, fruits, and vegetables, for instance, or even trying to avoid junk food, fries, refined, processed, fast foods, etc, the individuals still have very limited access to these whole foods. In such a scenario where economics becomes extremely limiting to individuals as in a food desert, achieving nutritional goals to sustain optimal health becomes hard indeed.
In many food deserts, for instance, people will find that individuals depend on more commercially packaged foods rather than on whole foods because of the limited availability at the local grocery or the farmers' produce. Though packaged foods can be commercially deemed convenient and shelf-stable, these foods are unhealthy and are refined in nature by virtue of their processing and cannot equal the whole foods at all from a nutritional perspective (often being high on unhealthy saturated or trans fats and in added sugars or salt).
The poverty rate is at least around 20 percent in a common instance of a food desert in any part of the world. When the median family income that can be deciphered in a rural census tract is less than or equal to 80 percent of the statewide median income of a family, on the other hand, in an urban area, the median family when less than or equal to 80 percent of area’s median family income would qualify as a food desert.
In a food desert, around an estimated 33 percent of the urban population would be staying more than a mile farther from the basic grocery whole food store or retail, in a rural sector, the distance troubles can further be aggravated because, in food deserts, it can range even up to ten miles or more from the location. Typically the consensus is that there are more food deserts as of now in urban communities rather than in rural communities. However, because of the poor socioeconomic status or the below poverty line, individuals in rural communities or areas are higher in number in most countries, there is a higher risk of the rural populations falling prey to nutritional or wasting diseases or even protein energy malnutrition in perspective to the younger population groups.
What Challenges Do Individuals in Food Deserts Face?
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are roughly 46 percent more food deserts in urban areas than in rural areas. So, what could possibly create health issues for individuals living in food deserts?
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Lack of Basic Social Facilities Like Public Transportation - Almost two million households located in food deserts in the United States do not possess an individual vehicle which makes it difficult to commute to the nearest whole food store. Similarly, individuals living in extremely remote residential areas, in spite of having their own vehicle, would still find commutation difficult in a food desert.
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Higher-Priced Products - Individuals who live in urban food deserts would need to rely on higher-priced markets such as convenience stores and gas stations. These are usually more priced than the local supermarkets or the typically located retail grocery chains in areas with good socioeconomic status.
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Lower Income Families - Because of the larger size or the lesser number of earning members in low-income families, a larger percentage of the income would be spent on higher-priced products in food deserts.
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Improper Dietary Habits - When there is limited access to whole foods in such locations, individuals tend to rely more on refined or ultra-processed foods, making them prone to a higher risk of developing chronic diseases or illnesses or even eating disorders due to less availability of whole foods.
What Public Health Strategies Support Remote or Food Desert Populations?
Though it would not be a near-futuristic solution to eliminate food deserts completely from the world, given that they are an overwhelming proportion in many countries, there can still be local public health measures as well as awareness strategies to follow to improve access to food resources. Some of the measures that can be followed are :
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By promoting the awareness of the right eating habits through nutritional counseling to individuals either in urban or rural food deserts.
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By area-wise families and communities developing eating habits for promoting these changes to the younger generations, the impact of nutrition education can help integrate proper nutrient diet into their cultural norms.
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The local public health bodies at the community level should emphasize more practical solutions that can be tailor-made to suit the needs of individuals located in food deserts ranging from commutation or public transportation access in remote areas to corner stores or stations making some space for stocking up fruit and vegetable produce. Community health solutions can make way for eliminating nutrient deficiencies or systemic issues such as malnutrition, cardiovascular diseases, or even obesity-linked diseases faced by these food deserts.
Conclusion
Food deserts are now quoted by nutritional experts as serious public health concerns that can keep raising the incidence or the global burden of nutritional diseases. Although the Economic Research Service (ERS) from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) no longer refers to low-income or low socioeconomic access areas as “food desert”, this terminology, generally in a broad perspective, is applicable for almost nearly 18.8 million people in a developing country like the United States itself who have limited access to whole food resources. These numbers can hence be larger in the developing or underdeveloped countries of the world where generally lower-income communities lack access to basic affordable health foods.
