Quoted by TIME, “Fast food chains are too often built in the early stages of low property valued areas where large traffic is predicted, and the population is expected to boom.” Being a set precedent for future development, we see a great disconnect between community planning and more specifically, the placement of housing. There is argument that with the creation of a franchise, such as fast food, a reinforcement of destructive pattern is continuously engaged, resulting in new migration away from these areas, once again creating more sprawl.
This mind set, having focus on the growth of fast food restaurants, only creates a problematic scenario for surrounding neighborhoods and its residents. According to SCIENCEDAILY, the State of the Evidence Review on Urban Health and Healthy Weights recently released a plethora of population health studies that included studies of different aspects of our urban environments that can either “inhibit or promote our ability to maintain a healthy weight.” Within the built environment, as in, neighborhoods and cities that are planned and developed, interaction with fast food chains and surrounding residential areas is taken into account throughout the evaluation process. What they found was low-income neighborhoods have a higher probability in the consumption of higher caloric intake, such as what is provided from the high convenience of fast food restaurants. There seemed to have been lower access to grocery stores. SCIENCEDAILY also continues to say that, amongst many low-income neighborhoods, there lie issues of having a lower socio-economic status. Therefore, there is higher probability in the idea that increase in obesity is derived from how “lower personal income affects the affordability of food.”
References:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904150,00.html
image initially from: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/11/article-0-013D127400001005-783_634x484.jpg
Yikes...this billboard would definitely grab my attention if I were passing by it! Fast food chains being near heavy traffic areas definitely have a close relationship to people commuting to and from their jobs because they live in a suburban neighborhood and work elsewhere. They have time to grab food and eat a meal on the way to and from work. Suburban dwellers are most-likely a huge contribution to unhealthy, cheap, and fast food restaurants. This is a great correlation, and also an eye-opener.
ReplyDeleteFast food: American's enemy! Our society is too set on convenience and instant gratification and what does fast food do? It meets both of these 'needs'. While these chains state they are making changes to offer society healthier decisions, it isn't working: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/study-fast-food-restaurants-promoting-healthy-options/story?id=12083819#.T0jb4iNuGOw
ReplyDeleteThe other hard truth to this is $$ and the cost of food. For the materially poor, the little money that they have cannot buy very many truly healthy products. They end up with high in sodium, high in fat products because they are cheap. They also may not have the proper cooking utensils or appliances and the fast food places now all have a menu under $1.00, how convenient especially when you have several mouths to feed.
This is so disturbing! It would be great to see neighborhoods taking up some land and creating a communal garden or even grocery stores---one of the HyVee's here in town has a garden that you can contribute to or pay a monthly fee to use and provide your family with healthy grown products. Free cooking classes would be another way to solve this issue as well as offering free produce programs to low-income families. Here in Omaha the Food Bank teams up with Coventry Nebraska and in the spring and summer they have a stand that they put up and low-income families can come shop and pick up what they want for their families free of charge.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteThe incorporation of fast food restaurants in areas where there is expected to be a population boom and high traffic areas is one that I had never thought about. Do you think that community planning should limit or ban the incorporation of unhealthy, fast food restaurants? Awesome billboard, by the way!!
Candace,
That's so interesting that you mentioned creating a communal garden. About a month ago, I watched a documentary called "Urbanized" (it was soooo interesting and I would recommend it to EVERYONE!! You can watch the trailer here: http://urbanizedfilm.com/trailer/. I saw it in a small, liberal arts-type theater in downtown Omaha, so I don't know if it's in major movie theaters or not). This documentary showed so many interesting ways to conquer some of the major issues in booming cities. GO SEE IT!!!! Anyway, back to the communal gardens. This documentary showed a young man in Detroit who wanted to fight the issues of unhealthy eating in low income/poverty stricken areas (which seems to be a large chunk of Detroit now that very few businesses are thriving (or even surviving)). He single-handedly planted a communal garden on land that the city set aside for his garden project. This food is free and anyone is allowed to plant or take food (as long as they help with the weeds). Not only did this little endeavor bring about healthier, free food to the community, it also started to bring a sense of pride back into the community and began a farmers market where they were able to sell "Detroit Grown" and "Detroit-Made" things. It's amazing what one can be created from one little idea. I think access to affordable, healthy food in low income neighborhoods is so, extremely important.
lauren your billboard i think takes the cake for impact and "visual literacy"...thinking about seeing this from a car at a certain speed...i think the message is made.
ReplyDeleteyour research and the "fixed" and parallel relationship between fast food and development was really enlightening. i was one of two instructors that taught the health care studio last semester and we spent 2 weeks mapping the health of lincoln. this revealed that economical demographics definitely played a roll in one's access to fresh produce/groceries...more convenience stores and fast food than anything else.
something else i've always wondered is if the change of the role of the kitchen in the household has also contributed to obesity rates...as it has liberated women from their place, there is such emphasis placed around the kitchen, it has become much larger in size, is integral to the "great room"/"family room"...always accessible
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteThat shift in the role of the kitchen is super interesting to think about. So many things can cause such a change with how a kitchen functions, but could it really be that suburbia itself is the reason for this morph? All I am thinking about right now is TV trays, sitting in front of the television, whatever. We're all about convenience, yet we live SO inconveniently. I wonder how many people actually use their kitchens, and how often.
Fast food is inviting because, it is cheap and seems like making your life easy. But, when you become a obese person, you can understand that life is not easy for you after that. Fast food is like habit and eve if people become overweight because of fast food, they don't give up it.
ReplyDeleteCandace you touch on good points about creating communal garden and joining free cooking classes. People can produce their vegetables and fruit and so, they can eat healthy food and at the same time, they can exercise as working in the garden physically. Besides that, sometimes people are thinking that organic food is expensive and getting vegetables and other food form grocery and cooking it is more expensive than fast food. On the other hand, We should accept that today, people are so lazy for cooking and growing vegetables and they choose easy way which is FAST FOOD.