A geography of children's health and obesity

In a recent study of children's health, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that when it comes to food outlets located within walking distance of most elementary schools in Harlem, junk food stores outnumered markets selling healthy foods by 6:1. The researchers found these results alarming because they suggest that young children may be consuming junk food rather than healthy products not simply because of personal choice but also because they have little access to the latter. With inner city children facing increasing risks of developing obesity and other related health problems, this lack of access is disturbing.

This situation is not unique to Harlem. Many inner city neighborhoods across the country house a disproportionate number of junk food stores. Moreover, some inner city neighborhood have no access to healthy foods because the only food outlets located in them are convenient stores. Given this lack of access to health foods, it should come as no surprise that overweight and obesity are significant problems in inner city communities.

In recent years, overweight and obesity have received significant attention by health care professionals, public health professionals, educators, health organizations, policymakers and the media. Some individuals and groups have constructed these health problems as individual/personal ones that can be solved by simply getting people to eat less, eat better and exercise more. Certainly there is much merit to this argument because people can't lose weight if they don't change their eating and lifestyle habits. At the same time, it is studies such as the one conducted by the Mount Sinai researchers that demonstrate the extent to which overweight and obesity are also public health problems that need to be addressed through community, state and national measures. People can't be expected to eat healthy, for instance, if they have no access to health food.

There is much more to the viewpoint that overweight and obesity are public health problems rather than simply individual/personal ones, but I will save more of this discussion for future posts.