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Food Deserts

In: Social Issues

Submitted By Jhor1234
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Food Deserts in Chicago

Food deserts are defined as parts of an urban area which are deprived of stores that provide fresh fruit, vegetables, as well as other healthy foods. These “deserts” can usually be found in the southern parts of the U.S. where poverty is more of an issue. For the past few decades, the consumption of unhealthy meals has increased. Social media plays a huge part in this recent spike of bad diets; Trends are set using social media, which influences many day to day decisions made by today’s youth.
Education can also be considered a reason for such poor dieting. Children in the inner city are not taught about healthy dieting from elementary through high school. Instead, children are taught how to say ‘a’ for ‘apple’, but not that apples are a healthy alternative compared to McDonald’s French fries. As time progresses, these same children grow older and carry their bad eating habits along with them and completely disregard healthy eating. The fact that food deserts are practically abundant in their neighborhoods does not make this any better. In Chicago alone, minorities make up the majority of low-income neighborhoods, and in these neighborhoods, grocery stores are miles away from homes where fast food restaurants are thriving.
The city is purposely constructed this way as a scheme to keep the health of minorities down, especially African Americans. This way, the minorities become dependent upon the system. African Americans who are faced with poverty are not able to afford constant medical bills as well as treatment, or they have no transportation. When poverty strikes it is very hard to progress, making it easier for us to be killed off.
To make something become a habit you drill it into someone’s head while they are young, prime example being elementary school. According to the State of Obesity, “From 1999 to 2012, 35.1 percent of

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