If you’ve ever told someone who had salad for dinner last night that it’s not that you don’t want to eat healthy food, it’s just that it’s so much easier to cook junk food; you might not be fibbing as much as you think you are.
Because according to Toronto Public Health, who mapped out the city to measure access to healthier food within walking distance, many neighbourhoods are a food swamp.
Translation? There’s an overabundance of unhealthy food like chips, pizza and frozen food, and less access to healthy produce like vegetables.
The index is calculated by dividing the number of “healthier food retail” establishments by the total number of all food places, multiplied by 100. The results showed a shocking amount of red—the colour used to indicate the swampiest and a substantial amount of orange—the colour used to indicate medium levels of food swamp.
On average, the findings showed that there were four less healthy food stores for every healthier food outlet. The study measured the food store locations in a 1km walking distance from each city block.
What the exercise could not show us was a significant correlation between a neighbourhood’s income and it’s score for the more healthy food options in its vicinity. However it did suggest that those areas where a low index and low income overlapped were the most concerning, as the food environment they have in which to spend their limited resources, would be dominated by places that sold less healthy food.
The study defined healthy food retail as a supermarket, butcher, baker, or smaller outlet with a significant quality of fresh produce. An unhealthy choice tended to mean fast food restaurants or convenience type stores.