TY - JOUR
T1 - Storing empty calories and chronic disease risk
T2 - Snack-food products, nutritive content, and manufacturers in Philadelphia corner stores
AU - Lucan, Sean C.
AU - Karpyn, Allison
AU - Sherman, Sandy
N1 - Funding Information:
During the school year of 2003-2004, study staff conducted multiple focus groups with sixth through eighth grade students at three Philadelphia public schools. As shown in Table 1, these schools were in low income, minority neighborhoods having predominantly Asian and Black (school A), Latino (school B), or Black (school C) student bodies. Research involved asking students which, if any, of the neighborhood corner stores they patronized and what food items they typically purchased for snacks, observing stores to corroborate student reports, and recording snack food items at relevant stores. Research activities were part of a broader corner store campaign—funded through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)—to promote healthier child snack purchases in urban neighborhoods. The University of Pennsylvania IRB approved the study.
PY - 2010/5
Y1 - 2010/5
N2 - Corner stores are part of the urban food environment that may contribute to obesity and diet-related diseases, particularly for low-income and minority children. The snack foods available in corner stores may be a particularly important aspect of an urban child s food environment. Unfortunately, there is little data on exactly what snack foods corner stores stock, or where these foods come from. We evaluated snack foods in 17 Philadelphia corner stores, located in three ethnically distinct, low-income school neighborhoods. We recorded the manufacturer, calories, fat, sugar, and sodium for all snack items, excluding candy and prepared foods. We then compared the nutritive content of assessed snack items to established dietary recommendations and a school nutrition standard. In total, stores stocked 452 kinds of snacks, with only 15% of items common between all three neighborhoods. Total and unique snacks and snack food manufacturers varied by neighborhood, but distributions in snack type varied negligibly: overall, there were no fruit snacks, no vegetable snacks, and only 3.6% of all snacks (by liberal definition) were whole grain. The remainder (96.4% of snacks) was highly processed foods. Five of65 manufacturers supplied 73.4% ofall kinds ofsnack foods. Depending on serving size definition, 80.0-91.5% of snack foods were "unhealthy" (by the school nutrition standard), including seven of 11 wholegrain products. A single snack item could supply 6-14% ofa day s recommended calories, fat, sugar, and sodium on average (or 56-169% at the extreme) for a "typical" child. We conclude that corner store snack food inventories are almost entirely unhealthful, and we discuss possible implications and next steps for research and intervention.
AB - Corner stores are part of the urban food environment that may contribute to obesity and diet-related diseases, particularly for low-income and minority children. The snack foods available in corner stores may be a particularly important aspect of an urban child s food environment. Unfortunately, there is little data on exactly what snack foods corner stores stock, or where these foods come from. We evaluated snack foods in 17 Philadelphia corner stores, located in three ethnically distinct, low-income school neighborhoods. We recorded the manufacturer, calories, fat, sugar, and sodium for all snack items, excluding candy and prepared foods. We then compared the nutritive content of assessed snack items to established dietary recommendations and a school nutrition standard. In total, stores stocked 452 kinds of snacks, with only 15% of items common between all three neighborhoods. Total and unique snacks and snack food manufacturers varied by neighborhood, but distributions in snack type varied negligibly: overall, there were no fruit snacks, no vegetable snacks, and only 3.6% of all snacks (by liberal definition) were whole grain. The remainder (96.4% of snacks) was highly processed foods. Five of65 manufacturers supplied 73.4% ofall kinds ofsnack foods. Depending on serving size definition, 80.0-91.5% of snack foods were "unhealthy" (by the school nutrition standard), including seven of 11 wholegrain products. A single snack item could supply 6-14% ofa day s recommended calories, fat, sugar, and sodium on average (or 56-169% at the extreme) for a "typical" child. We conclude that corner store snack food inventories are almost entirely unhealthful, and we discuss possible implications and next steps for research and intervention.
KW - Calories
KW - Corner stores
KW - Dietary guidelines
KW - Dietary risk
KW - Fat
KW - Food environment/built environment
KW - Food manufacturers
KW - Low income
KW - Minority
KW - Snacks
KW - Sodium
KW - Sugar
KW - Urban
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U2 - 10.1007/s11524-010-9453-5
DO - 10.1007/s11524-010-9453-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 20405225
AN - SCOPUS:77954654985
SN - 1099-3460
VL - 87
SP - 394
EP - 409
JO - Journal of Urban Health
JF - Journal of Urban Health
IS - 3
ER -