Lack of Planning Has Left Parts of N.J. Without Grocery Stores Nearby

Via NJ. com

Source: Pexels

By: Ekaterina Valiotis

New Jersey has 25 percent fewer supermarkets per capita than the national average, according to the Harvard University Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. Unfortunately, the Garden State does not live up to is name for many, with 340,000 New Jersey residents living in food deserts.

Nothing could be more fundamental to our well-being than healthy food and nutrition, and people have become increasingly focused on the sourcing and quality of what they eat.

As a nation, several decades into an obesity epidemic that has brought far-reaching and negative consequences, we are waking up to the fact that the items we select at the supermarket will go a long way towards determining the quality and length of our lives.

Unfortunately, though the knowledge of how to eat better is becoming more universal, access to healthy food is not distributed evenly. For every high-end, expensive supermarket that opens in a wealthy or upper-middle class neighborhood, large parts of our population, particularly in urban areas, remain bereft of such choices.

Read the full article here.