While more neighborhood grocery stores and less fast food restaurants may be useful steps toward stemming the nation’s obesity epidemic, no single approach will be effective in doing so. The federal government has made one of its priorities reducing “food deserts,” areas in which healthy food is difficult to find. The policy stems from limited evidence that food resources are related to obesity and are inequitably allocated according to neighborhood wealth, according to a study published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. The policy initiatives imply that reduced access to fast food and increased access to supermarkets will translate into improvements in diet behavior and health.
