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Originally Posted by Charlatan
Have a look at the supermarket the next time you are there. Have a look at how the food aisles are set up. Where are the healthy foods in relation to the processed foods? How are processed foods marketed vs. fresh? --snip-- Food is cheap there. Bad food is cheaper.
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Charlatan is right on the money here. I spent last summer in the Philly ghetto (North Philly and West Philly) as an RA for this very issue, being a data gopher for a study on the nutritional environment of the urban poor. I visited every corner "grocery" in the lowest-income areas of the city, about 150-200 total stores. It was a hell of a lot of data. Part of the survey was to look at grocery display units and how much shelf space (and where) was for healthy vs. unhealthy stuff. I also recorded prices for 10-12 key items to compare across stores.
Thing was, there usually wasn't ANY shelf space for healthy food, because it didn't exist. Tasty Kakes were readily available (typically 20+ grams of fat in one muffin!), as was whole milk, white bread, non-baked chips, Stouffer's full-fat frozen dinners, high-sugar cereals, non-diet soft drinks, full-fat franks, and the like. There was usually some overripe, if not rotting fruit and tomatoes, though the supply of potatoes and onions was decent and plentiful. There was maybe one "supermarket" in the whole area, and you had to walk a hell of a long ways to get there (or take the bus... neither of which are very fun in 90+ degree weather with very high humidity).
My job was to check and see how many low-fat, healthy options there were for people in low-income areas. It turned out that there were almost none. In a few places, on the margins of the ghetto (near the gentrifying areas, or around colleges like Temple or Penn), there were shops with some healthier foods. But otherwise, it was all shit to eat. Occasionally I would find a loaf or two of whole-wheat bread, some good bananas, and low-fat milk... but these were usually on the edge of expiration, and when I asked the owners about why they didn't stock more, they said that the stuff never sold well and demand was low. People didn't seem to know or care about the healthy food, and it was usually more expensive anyway. They went with what they knew, what they grew up with... the Stouffer's meatloaf, Tasty Kakes, and gobs and gobs of high-fructose corn syrup, as Charlie said.
Now, this gives some evidence to the cultural debate and education levels, but it also points to income and the inability of many of the residents to afford the big supermarket and the means to get there. You could argue that they could kill two birds with one stone by walking 30 blocks to the supermarket and burning calories in the meantime, but shit... in a Philly summer? I don't think I'd even make it. Maybe it's culture and education. Maybe it's the built environment and the unwillingness of city planners to create a healthy living space and access to decent food in low-income areas. Maybe it's all of the above, added up with something else altogether.
But I saw it with my own eyes. And I don't know how many of us would act so differently, given the same circumstances.