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Articles in Retail food access is linked to nutritional health.

  • Diet related disease is one of the top sources of preventable deaths among Americans.

    US Dept of Health and Human Services. 2001.The Surgeon General's call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity. US Dept of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General. Available at HYPERLINK "http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity" http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity.

  • Burden of overweight and obesity falls disproportionately on populations of high poverty. In National Center for Health Statistics data for 2001-2004, approximately 35% of those making less than 200% of poverty level are obsess, while 30% of those making above 200% of the poverty level or more are obese.

    NCHS. Health, United States: Table 73. Overweight, obesity, and healthy weight among persons 20 years of age and over by sex, age, race and Hispanic origin, and poverty level: United States, 1960-1962 through 2001-2004. National Center for Health Statistics. Available at HYPERLINK "http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf#073" http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf#073.
    Carlson SJ, Andrews MS, Bickel GW. 1999. Measuring food insecurity and hunger in the United States: Development of a national benchmark measure and prevalence estimates. J Nutr 129:510S-516S.

  • Migration of supermarkets to suburbs followed land use and transportation planning. This left corner stores with limited selection and higher prices as the main source of local groceries in urban areas.

    House Select Committee on Hunger 1990. Obtaining food: Shopping constraints of the poor. Committee Report. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office. ALSO Morland K (ET AL?). 2002. Neighborhood characteristics associated with the location of food stores and food service places. Am J Prev Med 22:23-29.

  • Small food stores have higher prices and less selection. Small stores typically charge 10% more. Small stores have less or no fresh produce and more processed foods.

    Williams D, Collins C. 2001. Racial residential segregation: A fundamental cause of racial disparitites in health. ASPH Public Health Reports 116:404-416.
    US Dept of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. 2002. U.S. Food Marketing System; Agriculture Marketing Report No. 811.

  • 85% of Oakland's food retail stores are 3,000 feet or less. There is a need for larger capacity stores.

    Troutt DD. 1993. The thin red line: How the poor still pay more. San Francisco CA: West Coast Regional Office, Consumer's Union.

  • Due to a lack of easily accessible fresh produce and healthy food, low income households purchase less expensive yet higher calorie foods/low nutritional content foods.

    Basiotis PP. 1992. Validity of the self-reported food sufficiency status item in the U.S. In Haldeman, VA. Paper presented at the American Council on Consumer Interests 38th Annual Conference. US Dept of Agriculture. Colombia, MO.

  • The longer the distance necessary to travel to a full service grocery store, the higher the body mass index (BMI). For a 5'5" person, traveling 1.75 miles or more to get to a grocery store equaled a weigh difference of about 5 pounds compared to someone who did not have to travel that far.

    Drewnowski A, Darmon N, Briend A. 2004. Replacing fats and sweets with vegetables and fruits - a question of cost. American Journal of Public Health 94(9):1555-1559.

  • Fast food restaurants lead to poor nutrition; full service restaurants are associated with better diets.

    US Dept of Health and Human Services. 2001.The Surgeon General's call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity. US Dept of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General. Available at HYPERLINK "http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity" http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity.

  • Low income consumers do not patronize small neighborhood businesses due to high prices, low quality and selection. Instead they traveled outside their own neighborhoods. This resulted in loss of potential retail dollars. A higher income neighborhood has 3-5 times the level of retail access as do three other poor areas of Oakland.

    Troutt DD. 1993. The thin red line: How the poor still pay more. San Francisco CA: West Coast Regional Office, Consumer's Union.