Living in poor neighborhoods has been linked to increased heart risk, and a new U.S. study suggests the lack of access to fresh, healthy foods may be to blame.
“Previous studies have found relationships between neighborhood characteristics and cardiovascular disease,” said lead author Jeffrey Wing of Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Finding that the density of healthy food stores was the only factor among those tested that consistently was related to slowing the progression of coronary calcium build-up was interesting in that we didn’t see the same relation with other neighborhood features,” like recreation . . .
