January 21, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 01, 1428

LOS ANGELES: In California, people are more than four times as likely to find a fast-food restaurant or convenience store than a grocery or produce store, according to a study released on Saturday by the California Centre for Public Health Advocacy.

The researchers say it’s a dangerous ratio in the face of an expanding national obesity crisis: it limits consumers’ choices to the convenient rather than the nutritious. Moreover, they say, some areas offer far fewer healthy choices than others.

“Where someone lives directly affects their chances of being overweight,” said Harold Goldstein, the centre’s executive director. “In neighbourhoods with fewer grocery stores than fast-food restaurants, the residents not only have higher obesity rates, but they also have higher rates of dying.”

Based on the report’s findings, the centre recommended that communities offer incentives to increase the number of grocery stores and produce vendors and that they limit the number of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores. Further, it endorsed a requirement for providing nutritional information on fast-food menus and menu boards.

—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service