Ask Lemmygrad

So, I think people are missing some important pieces of the puzzle. First of all the term “food desert” has been accurately explained here: no readily available healthy food options (non junk food/fast food) within a reasonable distance for people without a vehicle or in areas without robust public transit available. This encourages people to take the easy route and eat at Mc Donald’s, shop at convenience stores or the like daily. These food deserts do exist in many, mostly urban, places. BUT I’m not sure it would really make much difference if you plopped down a Whole Foods there.

1. I live in the Midwest in a “large” city with a population in the greater “metropolitan” area over 500,000. Throughout the entire city a person would have to walk (not even drive) no more than 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops in very few areas, to reach a Kroger or Wal-Mart or Target or Whole Foods, etc - there are no food deserts here. I live in an upper middle class neighborhood bordering a wealthy upper class area with 2 grocery stores less than a half mile from my house, a SAM’s Club 1 mile away, and a Wal-mart 1.5 miles away. The vast majority of the patrons at these stores are not, by any stretch of the imagination, poor or uneducated and are fully capable of making wise food choices and have the means to purchase organic vegetables and grass fed beef, etc. all day long. Most of them DON’T. This is not a race, gender, political, or socio economic issue. It’s human nature - junk/fast food is easier. During COVID I decided to take the opportunity to work on myself. I got back in to working out, changed my diet to lower carb (not Keto, more of a Paleo diet or low glycemic index diet), cutting out virtually all junk foods, fast foods, sugars, starchy carbs, etc. Since I was paying attention to food labels and what I was putting into my mouth (and therefore my cart) I started noticing what other people were putting in their carts. Mostly prepackaged junk food. The same kind of crap you can buy at the convenience stores etc. in the food deserts. Bags and bags of chips. “Potatoes”…in a box. Microwave dinners. Frozen pizza. I think you get the idea. This was not, obviously, a controlled, monitored study but I make (most of) my meals fresh from scratch so I shop daily. Sometimes more than once a day. So I have a lot of people watching under my belt over the last 3 years. In my observation only about 10% of people were shopping for similar things I was. Maybe another 15% had a good distribution of healthy and junk food in their carts (nothing wrong with that - just because I cut out junk foods doesn’t mean I think everyone should… I like ice cream and cookies too). The other 75%? Lucky to see even one apple in their carts. Fresh vegetables? Not a chance. They are actively making this decision - they have to walk by/through the produce section to get to the junk food… As a side note, I get most of my meat at half price because they put it on clearance when it is coming up on 3 or so days of the “best by” date. I always have a good selection to choose from. If the food was just priced too high for the store’s clientele then the clearance section should always be empty. But it never is. Just because people have healthy choices does not mean they will make that choice. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying people shouldn’t have a choice. Im just saying that having fresh, healthy foods available isn’t the panacea that a lot of people seem to think it is.

2. Healthy food costs more. My food budget has gone up by 40% since I started eating healthier foods and preparing meals from scratch. Even though I get most of my meats at half price, fresh vegetables, spices, oils, etc. that go into preparing the food are necessary to purchase as well. A typical frozen microwave meal or frozen pizza costs $3.00 to $10.00 depending on the brand and size. Cereal with milk comes out to less than $1.00 per bowl. Cooking fresh, raw, natural foods for myself and my girlfriend starts around $8.00 per plate (generalizing - depends on the meal). So, people with limited funds will still gravitate towards pre-prepared boxed/canned/frozen foods. And, why not? Those products extend their budgets so they can do other things in their lives.

3. Takes longer to prepare. Convenience store food usually just needs to be heated up in a microwave. 5 minutes or less and you can eat! Great! Fast food is an immediate meal. Working long shifts or multiple jobs takes away from food prep and cooking time. Why waste 30 to 60 minutes of your life for every meal when you can be relaxing watching tv or doing something else?

4. And last, but not least - safety. The person on this thread that said they drives 5 minutes out of the way to the better part of town to buy their groceries says it all. This person is part of the “problem” (ironically, as far as they see it) with stores closing because of low sales. If this person avoids the stores in the “bad” part of town, that are closer to their home, then it is reasonable to assume that countless other people do as well, even people that live there. For that matter, why would someone want to work at a store that so many people stay away from due to safety concerns? Why would the “evil” store owners or chains want to keep a store open that people are actively avoiding because they are afraid to go there? I’m not saying that corporations are on the little guy’s side nor denying that they are in it for a profit (of course), but is it reasonable for a retail store to act as a charity and keep stores open that are losing money?? If you think so then perhaps you need to open a store in a food desert.

TLDR: Food deserts exist in many places but it isn’t a one dimensional issue and there is no quick fix to human nature. Also, I miss eating the 3 P’s - pizza, pasta and potatoes. Eating healthy takes time, money and effort. I had to “train” myself to do this and most people don’t have the time, money, nor desire to put forth this effort.