March 10th, 2009

By Carol Sonenklar
Green Right Now

If people who ran the highest risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes were offered more fruits and vegetables to offset or prevent these health risks, would they eat them?

Resoundingly, yes.

Study after study shows that when low-income populations have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, they significantly improve their diets.

Yet, in most neighborhoods, fast food and convenience stores, not known for their wealth of fresh produce, are the most accessible choices for shopping.

A public health advocacy report by UCLA and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy called Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes found that the state of California had four times as many fast food restaurants and convenience stores as it did groceries or public produce markets. (The picture is likely the same or worse in other states.) The study further found a high degree of correlation between access to healthy food and an increased incidence of diabetes. This was exacerbated in lower income areas, where for many residents walking or public transportation are their only means of getting around.

The solution: Bring farmer’s markets to more urban areas. It’s greener and healthier.

Across the country, public health and community planners are joining forces to help change attitudes and eating habits by bringing farmer’s markets to lower-income residents. Community health clinics and government offices that provide vouchers, and other types of programs are bolstering these initiatives. Recently, WIC vouchers were amended to include fresh fruits and vegetables.

One of those new markets is in Brownsville, Texas, where the community and the University of Texas School of Public Health have come together to help increase awareness of the links between diet, obesity, and diabetes – and found an enthusiastic response.

Out of the 400 residents who shop weekly at the new Saturday market, 80 percent of them say they are eating more fruits and vegetables, and 78 percent are eating a wider variety of fruits and vegetables.

Surveys indicate that 84 percent of shoppers find the market produce better than they have seen elsewhere.

According to the CDC, obesity in Hispanic populations, as in all ethnic groups, is increasing, along with Type 2 diabetes. Texas’s Cameron County, which includes Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley, has twice the national average of diabetes and obesity.

Hispanics ages 18-44 have the highest prevalence of diabetes (6.8 percent) among all ethnic age groups in Texas and it is the fourth leading cause of death among Hispanics in the state, according to the Texas Diabetes Council.

What’s the main culprit? Processed carbohydrates and refined sugar. But fruits and vegetables exert an opposing force. They can help protect against diabetes because they contain natural sugar, says Rose Gowen, M.D. medical director of the Clinical Research Unit at the UT School of Public Health who also chairs the market’s board of directors.

“Mexican American diets are high in foods such as flour tortillas, beans, rice, and lard that are mostly processed carbohydrates,” she explains. “Not all carbohydrates are bad; it depends what kind they are. Fruit are carbohydrates but they contains natural sugar, which makes all the difference. We want to minimize carbs from processed foods, which, more often than not are also ‘empty calories’.”

The addition of fruits and vegetables also can make a significant difference even to those who already have type 2 diabetes or weight problems.

“A lower carbohydrate diet with more nutritional value can lower weight and control blood sugar,” says Gowen. “These two factors, together along with exercise, can improve many people’s health to the point that they need to take less or don’t need medication at all.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media