Last month, first lady Michelle Obama announced a campaign to bring large grocery stores to lower-income communities where healthy food choices are so scarce they are known as food deserts. The theory is that big stores’ ability to stock products in bulk will allow them to sell fresh produce at affordable prices, helping to combat the obesity epidemic.
But residents and public health researchers say a lack of supermarkets is only one barrier to healthy eating in communities such as Lawrence, where nearly half of adolescents are considered obese, according to a 2010 report by the state Department of Public Health. A new store won’t change people’s eating habits or even where they shop for groceries, especially in immigrant communities where bodegas are part of the social fabric.
“It’s a cultural thing,’’ local grocer Alberto Santana, speaking in Spanish, said about the unhealthy eating habits of Lawrence residents, more than three-quarters of whom are Hispanic.
Most get their food at bodegas, tiny stores that can be found on nearly every corner. The stores offer prepackaged taco kits and other foods that cater to residents’ cultural roots, but are rarely healthy.
A study published in last month’s Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that the location of full-service grocery stores didn’t result in healthier eating. The researchers tracked the nutritional intake of more than 5,000 adults for 15 years and found no relationship between their eating habits and proximity to grocery stores.
“People face a lot of different barriers to both purchasing and consuming healthy foods,’’ said Janne Boone-Heinonen, an assistant professor of obesity epidemiology at Oregon Health and Science University and the study’s lead author. “I think that focusing on supermarkets and large grocery stores is a really great place to start, but we really need to get more nuanced.’’
In a place like Lawrence, she said, corner stores should also be a major focus because “they already serve the targeted population.’’ There are more than 100 bodegas in the city, but she said most small stores don’t have the bulk-buying power or refrigeration capacity to offer healthy food at reasonable prices.
