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elizabeth-cooper t1_j8i14sh wrote

>For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that people living in food deserts—defined as areas lacking in supermarkets with fresh produce and other nutritious items—have little choice but to buy unhealthy food at drugstores or convenience stores. But the data tell a different story.

>A new Chicago Booth study finds that food deserts have no meaningful effect on eating habits. Exposing low-income households to the same products and prices as those in high-income households reduces nutritional inequality by only 9 percent while the remaining 91 percent of the nutrition gap is driven by difference in what shoppers prefer to buy, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper published recently.

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/food-deserts-not-blame-growing-nutrition-gap-between-rich-and-poor-study-finds

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newestindustry t1_j8i9j0s wrote

>By contrast, a means-tested subsidy for healthy groceries could increase low-income households’ healthy eating to the level of high-income households at about 15 percent of the cost of the SNAP program.

Never change, UChicago

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Fresh720 t1_j8ie4ok wrote

I wonder how that study would do today considering tthe data was taken from 2004 to 2015. People are a bit more health conscious now, then they were 10 years ago

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elizabeth-cooper t1_j8ikkx9 wrote

People aren't more health conscious now. Current research is suggesting that food "swamps" are more harmful than food "deserts." A food swamp is where there is an overabundance of unhealthy food establishments.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5708005/

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Fresh720 t1_j8j1lvt wrote

Strange I'm finding articles saying that younger generations are more health conscious, and it's gone up even more after the pandemic. I do think Food Swamps are a major factor, but processed food in general aling with a sedentary lifestyle might be the main culprits

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SirJoeffer t1_j8ikfsv wrote

Also doesn’t seem like that insightful of a study when it sounds like it comes down to ‘people bought what they were used to buying before even when presented with new options’. Especially when the new items are priced the same as they are in the high income areas grocery stores.

But yeah lets keep commenting on why giving poor people access to fruits and veggies is actually a BAD thing lol. Oml people will always hear about a good thing and immediately become cynical af about it and they’re the smart ones for knowing it won’t work bc this one study I found says I’m right and you’re a dumbass bleeding heart for supporting this. Like wtf lets just give the kids some fruit 😂

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