A healthy diet is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. But many people, and particularly those in vulnerable groups, do not adhere to the guidelines for a healthy diet. Unhealthy dietary choices may be the consequence of many factors, including a less favourable food environment. This refers to being in an area where there is a high quantity of supply of unhealthy food (such as fast food) with few healthy and affordable options available.
It is therefore important to understand the food environment and investigate the influence of better and worse food environments on human diets and human health, particularly those in vulnerable positions.
We are doing this in several different projects. In one, we researched the food environment around schools in The Hague (see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35462826/). To do this, we catalogued the food environment around a number of primary schools in The Hague and investigated associations between level of prosperity in the community, food environment around schools, and obesity in children based on geographic information systems (GIS). The results showed that most primary schools have fast food outlets in the near vicinity. The average distance to the nearest fast food outlet was 278 m. The density of fast food restaurants was higher around primary schools in disadvantaged communities.
We also studied the exposure to fast food restaurants, food insecurity, and food quality in disadvantaged communities in The Hague (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33106199/_). The results showed, in part, that food insecurity can be correlated with less healthy diets, and that the impact of food insecurity on diet was greater where a fast food restaurant is near the home.
Our research into the food environment continues. One of the main tools in this research is the Neighbourhood Discovery Tool. This is an app that participants can use to map out their local food environment using photos and other types of data. This will allow us to design a study to identify the factors in The Hague food environment that are beneficial and detrimental to a healthy and sustainable diet.
