›› Healthy costs. And not in that nebulous, “costs time, energy, sacrifice, thought and emotion” way. Healthy costs money. The green kind.
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise to us, either. Studies from all over the country show that households that eat the healthiest are the same ones that make the most.
But what if healthy food was democratized? What if the possibility of living without stretch pants were equally available to poor people as it is to rich people? Replace stretch pants with elevated risks of diabetes, cardiac disease or strokes and maybe the problem becomes more pressing for the health of America.
The Denver Food Access Task Force agrees. In a 2011 report, the commission found that metro areas with the lowest incomes generally had the poorest access to nutritious food. James Hill, who sits on that committee and is executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, said the problem is more than bulldozing city blocks for super food center anchors; it’s about creating demand in addition to the supply.
“Just because we build a grocery store in a low-income, urban area doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to choose those healthier things. They can’t choose them if they’re not there, but just because they’re there, I’m not sure they’re going to choose them,” he says.
He’s not sitting on his hands either. Last year his group, along with school districts across the city launched “5th Gear Kids,” a program designed to encourage fifth-grade students to make better decisions about food, and in turn, tell their parents to do the same. Partnering with stores like King Soopers, the program encourages activity and rewards it with discount points. That draws a direct line between talking about healthy food and putting it into people’s hands.
But what if they use reward points to buy Oreos and Cheetos? Can you tax fatty food to dissuade buyers?
“Let’s think about it: If we put more taxes on the foods that people desire but we would want them to consume less, who’s going to be able to afford those? It’s going to be the affluent,” Hill says. “There are a lot of social questions. I think we need to debate those strategies, but personally I’m a little bit skeptical of the tax-restrict because I think at the end of the day, you’re doing it to the poor people and the rich people are going to be able to do what they’re going to do. I’m not sure that’s the way forward.”
And that’s the problem. Over 25 percent of adults who make less than $15,000 a year are obese. That number drops to 16.8 percent when you make over $50,000.
Hill says he doesn’t have the answers, but he’s working on finding some. And that may include incentivizing grocer development in low-income areas. Building Healthy Communities — The California Endowment aims to offer $264 million to help fund grocery stores in places that don’t have them in coming years. Dr. Anthony Iton, senior vice president for that group told the Colorado Health Symposium in July to “stop waiting for Washington, D.C. If this is going to change we’re going to change it one person at a time.”
Healthy costs. The question is, who’s going to pay?