Fast Food and Your Neighborhood

Fast Food Joints More Common in Poor, Black Neighborhoods

The high density of fast food outlets in low-income, majority black neighborhoods may contribute to the obesity epidemic, say Tulane University researchers.

“Where people live and the kinds of food available close to them is likely to affect their ability to have a healthy diet,” says senior author Karen DeSalvo, chief of general internal medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “We found that high-income and mostly white neighborhoods have fewer fast food outlets per square mile than lower income or mostly black neighborhoods.”

Researchers used computer software to analyze the placement of fast food restaurants in Orleans Parish. The team found that predominantly black neighborhoods had 2.4 such eateries per square mile, while white neighborhoods only had 1.5, says lead author Jason Block, who is now an internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.

“We know that when people eat fast food, they often have larger portions with higher calorie counts than they do if they cook fresh food at home,” Block says. “We also know that obesity is increasingly a problem for low-income and black individuals.”

Access and the cost of food items do have an impact on what people eat, the authors wrote. DeSalvo and Block agree that more research is needed to examine the role of fast food in the obesity of low income and black populations.

The study is published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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