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Food swamps are the new food deserts. We’ve talked about the definition of food deserts, but have you heard of food swamps? Scroll down for more.

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If you’re part of the #ByteWell crew, you probably already know what a food desert is. If not, read this.

So, for a number of reasons we discussed in an earlier post, the public health community has turned its back on the concept of a “food desert” that explains the link between disparities in environment and differences in the eating decisions and health outcomes for Black and White Americans.

Food Swamp or Food Apartheid Area?

Now, there’s this shiny new idea of a “food swamp”. Food swamps are communities that are overwhelmed by low-quality food sources like fast food restaurants and convenience stores. Just like food deserts, food swamps are more likely to be found in lower-income communities and communities of color and less likely to be found in higher-income White communities.

Picture this: You’re in the forest with lush with foliage, colors galore. You make a left turn, and you’re standing in a swamp, an awful-smelling bog filled with mud and fallen trees. If this were a food swamp, the mud would represent all the corner stores, the Popeyes and the McDonald’s blanketing a specific community. Meanwhile, the fallen trees are all the sick community members whose health has been compromised by (you guessed it) all the Popeyes mud.

I’m no ecologist, but you get the picture. One important takeaway: unlike our muddy swamp, a food swamp is not a natural occurrence. In fact, food swamps are so unnatural, that they are also referred to as food apartheid areas.

Food Swamps Do See Race

Growing evidence shows that food swamps affect Black and White Americans differently. Food swamps aren’t simply an income issue, where all people living in the US with a certain level of poverty are equally likely to find themselves living in a food swamp.

No.

Food swamps more likely to affect Black communities than White communities even when those communities have the same average income level. In 2017, a group of scientists measured the density of fast food restaurants in 4 US cities. They found that for low-income neighborhoods, every 1% increase in the percentage of the White population predicted a 17% drop in density of fast food restaurants.

The Definition of a Food Swamp

Here’s how researchers define food swamps. One early study on food swamps in the US examined food swamps and food deserts in Baltimore. In this study, Hager and colleagues defined a food swamp as a neighborhood that includes 4 or more low-nutrition food sources within 0.25 miles. These researchers defined low-nutrition food sources as “convenience stores, behind-glass corner stores and small grocery/corner stores”. So, according to Hager, you live in a food swamp if you have at least 4 of those types of stores within 2 city blocks (0.25 miles) of your home. Ever been in a neighborhood like that?

Food Swamps Trump Food Deserts in Poor Health Outcomes

Multiple studies show that for adults and children, living in a food swamp it is a better predictor of poor health outcomes, like obesity and diabetes, than living in a food desert. Let’s walk through the logic. Being flooded by harmful food options (regardless of whether or not you have a supermarket nearby) increases your likelihood of eating one of those less healthy options… because they’re incredibly available. This over-representation of lower-quality foods plays into a common pattern in human thinking called “availability bias”. That’s the programmed behavior that leads you through the eating decision maze we’ve talked about before.

Studies show that we gravitate toward the food we’re surrounded by. If we’re surrounded by fruits and veggies, we’ll eat more of those. If we’re surrounded by junk, we eat junk. The researcher who helped us define food swamps earlier (Hager) found that adolescent girls in Baltimore who lived in a food swamp were likely to eat more low-quality “snacks” compared to those living in a food desert and those who lived in a neighborhood that was neither a food swamp nor a food desert. So, being surrounded by highly-processed and lower-quality food options (living in a food swamp) is a stronger predictor of poor health than not having a supermarket nearby (living in a food desert).

Scroll down for more…

What’s Your Food Environment Story?

Reflect for a moment: Have you ever lived in a food swamp or a food desert? Do you live in one now? Think deeply about how your food environment affects your eating decisions and your health. How did those eating decisions change when your environment changed? What about your family and friends? How are they affected by their food environments?

Analyzing food quality is all well and good, but what do we do once we realize we’re living in a food environment that negatively affects our chances of living a long and healthy life? We find a way past it!

That’s where healthy habit design comes into play. Click to learn more.