And I'm hungry!
"Food fundamentals; In Lawrence, grocery stores are only one part of the puzzle when it comes to promoting healthy eating habits and curbing obesity" by Neena Satija, Globe Correspondent / August 28, 2011
LAWRENCE - Walk into the Market Basket on Essex Street, the only full-service grocery store in this city of 76,000, and the first thing you see is a “build your own ice-cream sundae’’ shelf, stocked with chocolate syrup bottles, waffle cones, and sprinkles.
I try to save dessert for last.
A shelf of bananas stands nearby, topped with an advertisement for a banana cream pie recipe. At 6 p.m. on a Friday, shoppers stuff their carts with cookies, crackers, and other processed foods, generally avoiding the main produce aisle - all the way in the back of the store.
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.
That's interesting because while seeing my fair share of fatties out here, I also see a lot more waifs. Skinny white boy and skinny white girl (I assume eating disorder for the gal).
Also see: Drop and Give Me Twenty, Toddler!
Isn't calling him a fat little f*** child abuse?
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.
By what measurement?
Must be the American food.
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.
Then why do they look mostly healthy on a native diet, and why do cultures balloon when we export fast food to them?
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....
If I didn't know better I'd swear my pro-diversity paper is racist.
Then I had my food taken away from me after I already paid my $4.
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So grocery is only intere$ted in one thing, and it ain't yer health!
"A healthy diet is expensive and could make it difficult for Americans to meet new US nutritional guidelines, according to a study published yesterday that says the government should do more to help consumers eat healthier....
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Related: Massachusetts School Lunch
Yeah, the government really cares what you kids eat.
"Demand for locally grown produce spurs rise of urban farms; Programs have agrarian and economic roles" August 22, 2011|By Jennifer Oldham, Bloomberg News
DENVER - The demand for locally grown produce hit a high point this year, fed by urbanites looking to save money as well as documentaries such as “Food Inc.’’ and books including Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,’’ which explore industrial food production....
Urban agriculture would grow faster if the federal government supported farmers’ markets as it does large commodity producers, who receive billions in subsidies, said Jeffrey O’Hara, an economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, based in Cambridge, Mass....
Now I'm not feeling so well.
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And look who is slimming down:
Merck plans to shed about 13,000 workers
Boston Scientific to lay off 1,200-plus
I'm kind of full up on the Globe right now, readers.
