Improving Access to Healthy Food in Cities

Urban Health ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 148-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica L. Wang ◽  
Marisa Otis
Keyword(s):  
Population Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food Deserts ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Healthy Behavior ◽  
Unhealthy Eating

The concentration of people in urban areas represents an enormous opportunity to create an environment that can promote healthy behavior and attendant population health. One of those opportunities is the provision of food to urban populations. While it is possible and in many respects feasible to optimize food in urban environments, in many urban areas this is far from the case. For example, urban food deserts are characterized by a paucity of healthy foods, encouraging unhealthy eating and attendant poor health. Commercial forces are often—but not necessarily—at odds with the goals of providing healthy foods in cities, further complicating the picture. This chapter discusses the opportunities inherent in providing healthy food to urban populations and the challenges inherent in such efforts.

scholarly journals Morphological Stability of Rural Populations Confirms Their Use As Controls in Urban Ecology Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Regacho ◽  
Javier delBarco-Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Ecology ◽  
Mus Musculus ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Rodent Species ◽  
Rural Populations ◽  
Developmental Stress ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Morphological Asymmetry

Abstract The expansion of urban environments and how animals may be affected by them are being increasingly investigated, leading to a surge in urban ecology studies. Many urban ecology studies involve a direct comparison between rural and urban populations, or the use of urban gradients along a continuum from rural to urban areas. The implicit, although not properly investigated, assumption in these rural vs urban comparisons is that the rural populations offer a control that represents a lack of the anthropogenic stressors affecting the urban populations. Here we used museum skulls from 14 rodent species to conduct two separate studies, measuring fluctuating asymmetry (FA) as a proxy of developmental stress to assess the effect of anthropogenic disturbance. First, we compared urban and rural specimens of house mice (Mus musculus) to validate our methodological approach. Second, we compared rural specimens from 14 rodent species collected during the last two centuries across Austria. We hypothesised that FA in rural populations has not increased over the last two centuries, which would support the use of rural populations as a proper control in rural vs urban comparisons. We found higher morphological asymmetry in urban populations of Mus musculus compared to rural populations, which is consistent with similar studies in other species. However, we did not find any significant increase in FA over time in rural populations for any of the studied species. This supports the common practice of using rural populations as a control in rural vs urban comparisons when assessing the effects of urbanisation.

scholarly journals Technology to Address Food Deserts: Low Energy Corner Store Groceries with Integrated Agriculture Greenhouse

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7565
Author(s):  
Fahad Awjah Almehmadi ◽  
Kevin P. Hallinan ◽  
Rydge B. Mulford ◽  
Saeed A. Alqaed
Keyword(s):  
Food Deserts ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Operating Costs ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Corner Store ◽  
Integrated Agriculture ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
Chp System ◽  
Healthy Food Access

Food deserts have emerged as sources of urban crises around the world. The lack of access to healthy food has rendered health inequities that have been made more visible by the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the populations experiencing food insecurity and healthy food access. Research is posed to fight food deserts through innovation and technology; specifically, through the development of corner store grocery markets with integrated agricultural greenhouses in such a way as to both provide access to healthy foods at reasonable cost to better meet nutritional needs, and significantly reduce operating costs. The posed technology includes a combined heat and power (CHP) system to reduce overall energy costs by meeting the partial electric and thermal loads required within the store and the connected greenhouse. A mathematical model is developed to control the operation of the CHP system and to dispatch the generated electric power to the store and the thermal energy to the greenhouse to minimize overall energy requirements. The model is applied to an ambient environment representing a heating-dominant climate. Results indicate the potential to reduce operating costs by 55% in a heating-dominant climate.

scholarly journals Incidental exposure to hedonic and healthy food features affects food preferences one day later

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Léo Dutriaux ◽  
Esther K. Papies ◽  
Jennifer Fallon ◽  
Leonel Garcia-Marques ◽  
Lawrence W. Barsalou
Keyword(s):  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
General Effect ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Unhealthy Eating ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
Incidental Exposure ◽  
High Bmi

AbstractMemories acquired incidentally from exposure to food information in the environment may often become active to later affect food preferences. Because conscious use of these memories is not requested or required, these incidental learning effects constitute a form of indirect memory. In an experiment using a novel food preference paradigm (n = 617), we found that brief incidental exposure to hedonic versus healthy food features indirectly affected food preferences a day later, explaining approximately 10% of the variance in preferences for tasty versus healthy foods. It follows that brief incidental exposure to food information can affect food preferences indirectly for at least a day. When hedonic and health exposure were each compared to a no-exposure baseline, a general effect of hedonic exposure emerged across individuals, whereas health exposure only affected food preferences for high-BMI individuals. This pattern suggests that focusing attention on hedonic food features engages common affective processes across the general population, whereas focusing attention on healthy food features engages eating restraint goals associated with high BMI. Additionally, incidental exposure to food features primarily changed preferences for infrequently consumed foods, having less impact on habitually consumed foods. These findings offer insight into how hedonic information in the obesogenic food environment contributes to unhealthy eating behavior that leads to overweight and obesity. These findings further motivate the development of interventions that counteract the effects of exposure to hedonic food information and that broaden the effects of exposure to healthy food information.

Urban Health

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Full Understanding ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Current State ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Do So

Urban health is the study of the health of urban populations. More than half the world’s population is now living in urban areas, and two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030. This means that characteristics of cities—including, for example, features of the built environment—are shared by a large proportion of the global population. These characteristics ultimately shape how most of us think, feel, and behave; they shape what we eat and drink; and, inevitably, they shape our health. The ubiquity of urban exposures suggests that a full understanding of the features of urban environments that affect health—and how they do so—can unlock the potential for approaches to prevent disease, promote health, and make a substantial impact on the health of urban populations. Studying urban health therefore requires an appreciation both of the urban exposures themselves and the approaches that can inform scholarship in the field. This book combines these with case studies that illuminate the progression of health in cities, aiming to capture the current state of the field while also pushing the field, through holding a mirror to itself, to consider its next decade.

Pollution

Urban Health ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 112-128
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Samet
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Urban Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
World Health ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Health Organization

Urban environments represent densely populated spaces characterized by people, built environments, and modes of transportation all in close proximity. Pollution as a by-product of these forces represents a substantial threat to the health of urban populations worldwide. Current World Health Organization estimates are that up to 7 million people die due to air pollution annually, with the vast majority of them in urban areas. Indoor and outdoor pollution to varying degrees in low- and high-income countries both represent threats to health in urban environments. This chapter discusses pollution as a challenge to urban health and the potential opportunities to improve population health represented by innovative approaches to minimize pollution in cities.

scholarly journals Using Ecological Diversity Analyses to Characterize the Availability of Healthy Food and Socio-Economic Food Deserts

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 10297
Author(s):  
Annie Goyanes ◽  
Jeffrey Matthew Hoch
Keyword(s):  
Food Deserts ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Broward County ◽  
Fresh Food ◽  
Local Access ◽  
Neighborhood Income ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Selection Of

“Food deserts” are usually defined as geographic areas without local access to fresh, healthy food. We used community ecology statistics in supermarkets to quantify the availability of healthy food and to potentially identify food deserts as areas without a diverse selection of food, rather than a binary as to whether fresh food is present or not. We test whether produce diversity is correlated with neighborhood income or demographics. Abundance and diversity of fresh produce was quantified in supermarkets in Broward County, Florida, USA. Neighborhood income level and racial/ethnic makeup were retrieved from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey. Although diversity varied, there were no communities that had consistently less available fresh food, although the percent of a neighborhood identifying as “white” was positively correlated with produce diversity. There may be fewer choices in neighborhoods with a higher proportion of minorities, but there were no consistent patterns of produce diversity in Broward County. This method demonstrates an easy, inexpensive way to characterize food deserts beyond simple distance, and results in precise enough information to identify gaps in the availability of healthy foods.

scholarly journals Changes in the home range sizes of terrestrial vertebrates in response to urban disturbance: a meta-analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate O’Donnell ◽  
Javier delBarco-Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Spatial Movement

Abstract The unprecedented growth rate in human population and the increasing movement of people to urban areas is causing a rapid increase in urbanisation globally. Urban environments may restrict or affect the behaviour of many animal species. Importantly, urban populations may change their spatial movement, particularly decreasing their home ranges in response to habitat fragmentation, the presence of landscape barriers and the availability and density of resources. Several species-specific studies suggest that urban animals decrease their home ranges compared with their non-urban counterparts; however, it remained unclear whether this pattern is widespread across taxa or is instead restricted to specific taxonomic groups. Consequently, we conducted a meta-analysis, collecting 41 sets of data comparing home ranges in both natural and urban environments in 32 species of reptiles, birds and mammals. We calculated effect sizes as the difference in animal home range sizes between natural and urban environments. We found that the home ranges were smaller in urban environments compared with natural environments (mean effect size = −0.844), and we observed a similar result when considering birds and mammals separately. We also found that home range sizes were not significantly affected when disturbance in urban areas was minimal, which suggests that many species may be able to tolerate low levels of disturbance without changing their movement patterns. Our study thus indicates that increasing levels of urbanisation restrict the spatial movement of species across taxa; this information is relevant for ecological studies of further urban species as well as for the development of management strategies for urban populations.

scholarly journals Barriers to Food Security and Community Stress in an Urban Food Desert

Urban Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Crowe ◽  
Constance Lacy ◽  
Yolanda Columbus
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Food Deserts ◽  
Grocery Stores ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mental And Physical Health ◽  
Community Stress ◽  
Economic Stressors

By analyzing data from focus groups in a poor, mostly African American neighborhood in a large U.S. city, we describe how residents in urban food deserts access food, the barriers they experience in accessing nutritious, affordable food, and how community food insecurity exacerbates prior social, built, and economic stressors. Provided the unwillingness of supermarkets and supercenters to locate to poor urban areas and the need for nutritious, affordable food, it may be more efficient and equitable for government programs to financially partner with ethnic markets and smaller locally-owned grocery stores to increase the distribution and marketing of healthy foods rather than to spend resources trying to entice a large supermarket to locate to the neighborhood. By focusing on improving the conditions of the neighborhood and making smaller grocery stores and markets more affordable and produce more attractive to residents, the social, built, and economic stressors experienced by residents will be reduced, thereby possibly improving overall mental and physical health.

scholarly journals Mapping the availability and accessibility of healthy food in rural and urban New Zealand – Te Wai o Rona: Diabetes Prevention Strategy

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1049-1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Wang ◽  
Margaret Williams ◽  
Elaine Rush ◽  
Nic Crook ◽  
Nita G Forouhi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Diabetes Prevention ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Prevention Strategy ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Obesity And Diabetes ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

AbstractObjectiveUptake of advice for lifestyle change for obesity and diabetes prevention requires access to affordable ‘healthy’ foods (high in fibre/low in sugar and fat). The present study aimed to examine the availability and accessibility of ‘healthy’ foods in rural and urban New Zealand.DesignWe identified and visited (‘mapped’) 1230 food outlets (473 urban, 757 rural) across the Waikato/Lakes areas (162 census areas within twelve regions) in New Zealand, where the Te Wai O Rona: Diabetes Prevention Strategy was underway. At each site, we assessed the availability of ‘healthy’ foods (e.g. wholemeal bread) and compared their cost with those of comparable ‘regular’ foods (e.g. white bread).ResultsHealthy foods were generally more available in urban than rural areas. In both urban and rural areas, ‘healthy’ foods were more expensive than ‘regular’ foods after adjusting for the population and income level of each area. For instance, there was an increasing price difference across bread, meat, poultry, with the highest difference for sugar substitutes. The weekly family cost of a ‘healthy’ food basket (without sugar) was 29·1 % more expensive than the ‘regular’ basket ($NZ 176·72 v. $NZ 136·84). The difference between the ‘healthy’ and ‘regular’ basket was greater in urban ($NZ 49·18) than rural areas ($NZ 36·27) in adjusted analysis.Conclusions‘Healthy’ foods were more expensive than ‘regular’ choices in both urban and rural areas. Although urban areas had higher availability of ‘healthy’ foods, the cost of changing to a healthy diet in urban areas was also greater. Improvement in the food environment is needed to support people in adopting healthy food choices.

Cognition and Adaptation to Urban Environments

2020 ◽  
pp. 253-267
Author(s):  
Daniel Sol ◽  
Oriol Lapiedra ◽  
Simon Ducatez
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Urban Populations ◽  
Population Extinction ◽  
Generation Times ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences

Urbanization is one of the most drastic alterations of natural habitats, causing sudden adaptive mismatches that make population persistence difficult for many organisms. Urban contexts may be challenging for adaptation, particularly for animals with long generation times with slow evolutionary responses. This chapter argues that cognition may play a major role in facilitating evolutionary adaptation of animals to the urban environment. By regulating how animals gather, preserve, and use information, cognition can influence adaptive evolution in urban areas by (1) allowing individuals to choose the habitats and resources that better match their phenotypes, and (2) helping animals to construct learned responses to challenges they have never or rarely experienced before. These cognitive processes can weaken the strength of selection. However, they can also facilitate adaptive evolution by reducing the risk of population extinction and by ensuring that individuals are more gradually exposed to the new conditions. In addition, cognitive processes can maintain genetic diversity for selection to act upon in the future as well as promoting local adaptation by reducing gene flow with nearby non-urban populations. Finally, learned behaviours can allow the population to move close to the realm of attraction of new adaptive peaks, driving evolution toward novel directions. Cognition itself may also evolve in urban areas—particularly in long-lived generalists—if it exhibits enough heritable variation. Echoing recent suggestions in cognitive ecology, the chapter highlights the need to design and carry out experiments explicitly designed to assess the evolutionary consequences of cognition in urban populations.

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