‘Food desert’ is one of the most common definitions in many locations on the earth. According to Wright et al. (2016), ‘food desert’ terminology appeared in Scotland at the beginning of the 1990s, and its primary meaning was the lack of healthy and varied food. Poverty during these years was at a high level, and people did not have a chance to travel to different locations to afford products to maintain physical health. Consequently, this problem causes a variety of health problems that are transferred throughout generations.
In many countries, products were not delivered to remote areas, and people had to survive on leftovers that harmed their health. The lack of modern vehicles slowed down the transportation process, and travels for healthy products took a long time and a lot of energy. Consequently, many citizens of remote areas had to deal with a lack of food. In the United States, many factors caused the emergence of this problem, and the main is political, self, and social (Wright et al., 2016). Signs of corruption and tough government rules did not allow the delivery of food to distant places, and the bulk of healthy foods was only available in large regions of the country. Poverty in small areas brought social problems, and self-poverty started to increase during the times of the ‘food desert’.
Lack of healthy food brought many health problems like diabetes. Sugary and fatty products have always had a low prices, and these cuisines were the only salvation for remote areas of the United States. The absence of healthy food such as vegetables caused problems with insulin production, and to this day, many people still suffer from this health issue. Moreover, the life expectancy rate in regions where healthy food was not delivered was much lower. People were dying from unknown diseases that the consumption of unhealthy products could potentially cause.
Constant consumption of oily food causes obesity in the nation, and nowadays, it is one of the common problems in the USA. The cost of healthy products still exceeds the price of unhealthy food, and malnutrition is high. ‘Food desert’ was the beginning of the development of this deviation in the human body. Moreover, unspecified eating patterns, which were peculiar to the remote areas in the 1990s, have become high indicators of obesity. However, not every organism can digest the heavy food that was available in locations with a high poverty rate. Consequently, such health problems as anorexia also existed, and their impact was on par with diabetes or obesity. The modern understanding of anorexia is almost unlike what it was during the ‘food desert’ times, and aversion to the available food was caused by intolerance to specific products. The emergence of anorexia at the end of the twentieth century began to be passed on to generations, and now anorexia is considered a genetic or psychological disorder.
To conclude everything that has been stated so far, the ‘food desert’ times were not easy for the United States and the world in general. Many factors like politics and poverty caused an inability to get food in remote areas, and the consequences of the influences of these factors were unpleasant. Health problems like diabetes, obesity, and anorexia appeared, and they still negatively influence the modern world.
References
Wright, J. D., Donley, A. M. & Gualtieri M. C. (2016). Food Deserts: What is the Problem? What is the Solution? Social Science and Public Policy, 53, 171-181. DOI 10.1007/s12115-016-9993-8.