INTRODUCTION Racial/ethnic minority communities are at increasingly high risk for chronic diseases related to obesity. Access to stores that sell affordable, nutritious food is a prerequisite for adopting a healthful diet. The objective of this study was to evaluate food access, availability, and affordability in 3 nonoverlapping but similar low-income communities in urban Los Angeles, Californ...

BACKGROUND Low-income and minority communities have higher rates of nutrition-related chronic diseases than do high-income and nonminority communities and often have reduced availability to healthful foods. Corner store initiatives have been proposed as a strategy to improve access to healthful foods in these communities, yet few studies evaluating these initiatives have been published. COMMU...

OBJECTIVE Understand food choice, from the perspective of people residing in socioeconomically deprived rural neighborhoods. METHODS Focus groups (n = 7) were undertaken within a community setting involving 42 adults (2 males and 40 females) recruited through voluntary action groups. Data were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and content analyzed. RESULTS Attitudes to food and health were in...

INTRODUCTION The availability of healthful foods varies by neighborhood. We examined the availability and price of more healthful foods by store type, neighborhood income level, and racial composition in a community with high rates of diet-related illness and death. METHODS We used the modified Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores to conduct this cross-sectional study in 2008. We s...

BACKGROUND Weight gain rather than weight loss often occurs after breast cancer diagnosis despite breast cancer survivors frequently reported making healthful lifestyle changes. This study describes the prevalence and magnitude of changes in weight before and after breast cancer diagnosis and examines lifestyle behaviors of breast cancer survivors with stable weight, weight gain or weight loss....

Research on the impact of the built environment on obesity and access to healthful foods often fails to incorporate information about how individuals interact with their environment. A sample of 198 low-income WIC recipients from two urban neighborhoods were interviewed about where they do their food shopping and surveys were conducted of food stores in their neighborhoods to assess the availab...

popularity of hand sanitizer and antibiotics shows how we feel about bacteria: an enemy that's bad for our health. Emerging data, however, suggest just the opposite-that exposures to certain kinds of bacteria are beneficial for a long and healthy life, at least in part by inhibiting a wasting syndrome termed cachexia [1]. Cachexia, a condition defined as muscle wasting associated with chronic d...

In the United States, the leading determinants of morbidity and mortality are rooted in behavioral choices related to eating habits, exercise, tobacco, alcohol consumption, and stress reduction. Scientific data consistently provide evidence that diet plays an important role in health promotion and disease prevention. Healthy eating habits--coupled with other healthful lifestyle behaviors--have ...