Food deserts are very prevalent in America today. In a news article in the Indianapolis Business Journal, Jeffrey Hilburn says “More than 20 percent of the population in five of the eight counties in metro area (Indiana) live in food deserts.” That is in Indiana alone. A food desert is when there is no major grocery store within 1 mile of an area in an urban area and within 10 miles of a rural area. That means that the people within these areas are searching for places to get groceries. Instead they resort to a dollar store or a convenience store or even a gas station. Can you imagine feeding your family with food from one of the gas stations in your town? Even though it is there only choice, due to the lack of stores or transportation to stores,
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The foods you find at stores such as 7/11 or gas stations are not meant to be the food that you come home to sit at your dinner table and eat. As Lemley Weidenbener said in Lawmakers Bill Aims to Eradicate Food Deserts “ And they (the convenience stores) don’t offer enough to be a good source of food.” Because these are not quality nutritional foods, we need to construct a place where citizens can get better quality. Instead of going to a real store and buying apples these people go into a gas station and buy a candy bar for a snack. Even though it seems obvious this is not a good idea it is there only option so they do not know any better. The convenience food is the easiest option for these people so logically if they were to have a store near them then they would go to that, but they don’t so they must go to the only option left for them. In America Buying Low-Nutrient Packaged…, an article in Nutracenticals World, it is said that “In the present study of the food from convenience stores and clubs and mass merchandisers is much higher in total energy, sugar, and sodium than that of the foods from grocery stores.” (paraphrase) The foods those people are eating are horrible for them. So in seeing this why can’t the government step in and say we need grocery stores here to help the United States citizens who are eating themselves into an “obesity trap” as it was said in The Rich Get Thinner, The Poor Get Fatter. Whether it is the government or the grocery store chains someone needs to help the people who inhabit these “deserts”, they are in dire
The foods you find at stores such as 7/11 or gas stations are not meant to be the food that you come home to sit at your dinner table and eat. As Lemley Weidenbener said in Lawmakers Bill Aims to Eradicate Food Deserts “ And they (the convenience stores) don’t offer enough to be a good source of food.” Because these are not quality nutritional foods, we need to construct a place where citizens can get better quality. Instead of going to a real store and buying apples these people go into a gas station and buy a candy bar for a snack. Even though it seems obvious this is not a good idea it is there only option so they do not know any better. The convenience food is the easiest option for these people so logically if they were to have a store near them then they would go to that, but they don’t so they must go to the only option left for them. In America Buying Low-Nutrient Packaged…, an article in Nutracenticals World, it is said that “In the present study of the food from convenience stores and clubs and mass merchandisers is much higher in total energy, sugar, and sodium than that of the foods from grocery stores.” (paraphrase) The foods those people are eating are horrible for them. So in seeing this why can’t the government step in and say we need grocery stores here to help the United States citizens who are eating themselves into an “obesity trap” as it was said in The Rich Get Thinner, The Poor Get Fatter. Whether it is the government or the grocery store chains someone needs to help the people who inhabit these “deserts”, they are in dire