Shoppers at PCC Natural Markets,Whole Foods Marketand Trader Joes are less likely to be obese than shoppers at low-cost grocery stores, according to a new report from the Seattle Obesity Study.
Food shoppers at these higher-price stores, as defined by the study, had an obesity rate of 4 to 5 percent versus nearly 40 percent for Albertsons’ shoppers. The Seattle region, which was the focus of the research, has an obesity rate of almost 20 percent, which is lower than the U.S. average of about 34 percent.
“We are increasingly finding that obesity is a reflection of economic conditions,” said Adam Drewnowski, PhD, University of Washingtonprofessor of epidemiology. “You see higher rates in lower income neighborhoods, poor zip codes, cheaper, fast-food restaurants, and, yes, in downscale supermarkets as compared to places like Whole Foods.”
Prior to the SOS study, access to healthy food has been a defined mostly by geographic proximity to supermarkets. Bringing more grocery stores to low-income, high-minority or rural areas—so-called “food deserts”—is thought to improve residents’ diets and health. As a result, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a partnership between the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services, plans to spend $400 million in 2011 to bring supermarkets to underserved areas and help convenience stores carry more fresh produce.
But factors other than supermarket access may be at play, according to the Seattle researchers. To determine the top factors, the researchers analyzed actual human behavior of more than 2,000 shoppers in the Seattle area, tracking their choice of supermarkets and comparing it to their education, income and obesity rates.
The SOS researchers found that only 15 percent of study respondents shopped at stores within their census tract. “Six out of seven people shopped for food outside their immediate neighborhood,” Drewnowski said in a release. “The closest supermarket for most people was less than a mile away, but people chose the market that was more than three miles away.”
See more at: http://naturalfoodsmerchandiser.com/tabId/119/itemId/4704/Natural-grocery-shoppers-less-likely-to-be-obese.aspx
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