If high rates of obesity are correlated with poverty and limited access to fresh, healthy food, it’s logical that building more supermarkets should improve public health outcomes. This is the conclusion the Obama administration has drawn, and barring further cuts, the current federal budget designates more than $400 million toward an item called the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which will help fund new markets in low-income neighborhoods. It’s a progressive move based on sound research and reasoning—but according to public health expert Rupal Sanghvi, the initiative has the potential to be a lost opportunity at a grand scale.”Standard supermarkets are designed to promote consumption of foods that are high in sugar and preservatives,” explains Sanghvi, “because those are the high-margin items that maximize profit.” According to current guidelines, in an average 10,000-square-foot supermarket, only 500 square feet must be utilized for fresh produce. If the U.S. spends millions to build supermarkets according to the conventional mold, she argues, we may see some improvement in public health simply as a result of increased access to food, but we stand to achieve far better outcomes if we first reconsider supermarket design itself.
