Food swamps are bad for your health too

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Do you live in one or shop one too often?


www.msn.com/en-us/health/nutrition/scientists-say-food-swamps-are-a-real-thing-and-are-terrible-for-people-who-live-in-them/ar-AA1co0ll?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f80bf6c78bda42b98db603b9c845e1b7&ei=46


Food swamps-areas awash in convenience stores, fast food chains, and the cheap, unhealthy food they provide-are a health risk to people who live in them. As ScienceAlert reports, since the term was coined in the 1990s, there has been much concern over food deserts-areas that lack adequate options for healthy foods within walking distance. These phenomena are certainly a major health concern that disproportionately affects lower-income people and communities of color.

But many of us have not heard of food swamps, which can also be unhealthy places to live. A food swamp is defined as a place with more convenience stores and fast-food options than grocery stores and farmers’ markets with no supermarkets within a radius of one mile. According to researchers, these areas tend to exist in southern areas of the United States that have the highest rates of chronic diseases, including lung, prostate, colorectal. breast, and other cancers.

People who lived in food swamps, the study found, had a 30 percent higher likelihood of dying from cancer related to obesity. This was even after adjusting for poverty rates, age, and ethnic background, meaning the lack of availability of healthy food options clearly contributes to obesity, cancer, and death.

I don't live in a food swamp as the Spanish grocery store is less than a mile away. They aren't great as a primary or only store for me because of what I eat and how marked up some regular "white people" or WIC options are. An 8oz tub of a name brand turkey deli meat retails for $5.99 at either regular grocery store under 4 miles from where I live. Regular price at the Spanish grocery is $8.99 . Ocean Spray 64 oz juice if not on sale is usually about $5.69. I used to buy it on sale at the regular grocery store for $2.50 to $2.99. Because of Covid price hikes and gouging its now $3.99 regular price, but almost $2 cheaper than the ethnic oriented grocery chain.

This outpost of this ethnic oriented grocery chain is probably a 1/3 to a 1/4 of the size of the one near the farmer's market. But since until I get healthy enough to walk two miles, this and a drugstore are my only walkable choices. I bought two flavored 1.5 oz pouches of almonds on sale at $1 each on my way home from the bus. They have very little in the way of frozen foods which are similarly over-priced if not on sale. Not a swamp, but swampish for me for now.