Kansas City’s urban core needs better access to fresh food to battle diabetes

More grocery stores are slowly opening in urban areas of Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, providing fresh-food options to people who have been underserved for years.

They include a Sunfresh Market that opened in 2008 on the 18th Street Expressway in the Prescott Plaza, hailed as the first new grocery in Kansas City, Kan., in 30 years. And an Aldi opened in 2014 at 39th Street and Prospect Avenue in Kansas City.

These are positive developments, especially in light of a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists that focused on the important correlation between the “proximity to healthy food retailers and lower rates of diabetes.”

The report — “The Devastating Consequences of Unequal Food Access: The Role of Race and Income in Diabetes” — made these excellent points:

“Race and socioeconomic status are highly correlated with access to affordable healthy food in this country. Even if lower-income individuals have physical access to healthy food, they may not have economic access — that is, they may not be able to afford healthy food.”

It matters when people develop diabetes, which has turned into a serious public health problem. Diabetes rates in the last 30 years in the U.S. have nearly quadrupled. Nearly 30 million people have diabetes, and about 90 to 95 percent of those cases are type 2 diabetes, which is diet related and preventable.

But it’s difficult to prevent if so-called food deserts in urban communities deny access to a healthy diet. It’s hardly an accident that people of color have a higher prevalence of diabetes.

Kansas City Health Director Rex Archer notes that there is a 13-year difference in the life expectancy of people on the city’s East Side, where it’s shortest, vs. along State Line Road and in the Northland, where it’s longest.

The median family income in the East Side ZIP codes, which are 83.6 percent minority, is $30,470. But it’s $97,000 in the longer life expectancy ZIP codes, which are only 16 percent minority.

“There is a stark difference in full-service grocery stores in those two different areas of the city,” Archer said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 13.2 percent of African-Americans and 12.9 percent of Latinos have diabetes, compared with 7.6 percent of whites.

Under the current trends, a third of the U.S. population could have diabetes by 2050 — 30 percent African-Americans and 50 percent Hispanic.

It’s nothing to take lightly. The disease is the seventh-leading cause of death in America. Untreated or poorly managed, it can result in kidney damage, blindness, poor circulation, lower limb amputation, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

The food access report correctly notes that diabetes and other diet-related chronic illnesses are symptoms of “inequities, which cause communities of color and lower-income communities to have more restricted food choices than predominantly white communities.”

In addition to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color having fewer full-service grocery stores with fresh, inexpensive vegetables and fruits, they also have more “unhealthy-food retailers,” which include fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, selling “highly processed convenience items.”

Archer said another concern is the number of liquor stores in urban areas. Liquor sales there reduce the profit margins that full-service grocery stores could enjoy. An alternative might be to require liquor stores to add fresh fruits and vegetables to their inventory.

The report said the foods available to communities of color and lower-incomes often were high in sugar, salt and fat, not high in fiber, vitamins and minerals that come from fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Such a diet contributes to type 2 diabetes and chronic diseases including obesity and heart disease.

Race plays a huge part in determining where healthy-food retailers locate.

“One study found that lower-income communities had fewer supermarkets regardless of race or ethnicity but also that at equal levels of income, predominantly African-American communities had the fewest supermarkets,” the report said.

It’s why Kansas City’s plan to reopen the Linwood Shopping Center at 31st Street and Prospect Avenue with a grocery store is important.

It’s also why the city should put back on track plans to build a grocery store at 27th Street and Troost Avenue. It would serve the surrounding African-American neighborhoods and the growing population of young adults in the Crossroads area near downtown.

That would fit one of the report’s recommendations for policymakers to provide “incentives that encourage healthy-food retailers to build in underserved locations.”

Mobile markets selling fresh vegetables and fruits could help in addition to improving transportation options to full-service grocery stores in other areas.

Schools also should offer culturally appropriate nutrition education for children and families.

The next president also could take on a national policy to transform the U.S. food system. It’s certainly needed to better serve all communities and ensure better health for everyone.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 4:17 PM.