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 Part of the problem, researchers say, is a lack of supermarkets in
poor communities, leaving residents reliant on smaller convenience
stores and drugstores, where any milk is more expensive and low-fat
varieties are less often available.
“These findings indicate that it’s more challenging and more
expensive for populations at high risk for obesity and other
diet-related health problems to follow dietary guidelines, at least
with respect to milk,” lead study author Leah Rimkus, a scientist at
the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of
Illinois in Chicago, said by email.
Younger children should drink two cups of reduced-fat or fat-free
milk a day and older kids and adults should consume three cups
daily, according to recommendations from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA). Milk and other dairy products contain calcium,
potassium and vitamin D – ingredients linked to stronger bones,
lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of heart disease and
diabetes.
Skim milk is recommended because whole milk is high in saturated
fats that can raise blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
cholesterol, the bad kind that increases the risk for heart disease,
according to the USDA.
Rimkus and colleagues researched the price and availability of lower
fat and whole milk at 9,226 stores across 468 communities in 46
states during the spring and summer months of 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Within the representative sample of stores, 9 percent were
supermarkets, 7 percent grocery stores and 84 percent so-called
limited service stores like bodegas or mini-marts, they report in
the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Nationwide, whole milk was available in 81 percent of stores,
roughly double the proportion of places that sold fat-free milk, the
study found. Whole milk was stocked in 99.9 percent of supermarkets,
89 percent of grocery stores and 78 percent of limited service
stores.
Fat-free milk, too, was most plentiful in supermarkets, stocked 98
percent of the time. This healthier alternative was sold in 52
percent of grocery stores but just 36 percent of convenience stores,
the study found.
The researchers used census data to assess the racial makeup and
income levels in each community.
Compared with white communities, the odds that stores sold any type
of milk were 31 percent to 67 percent lower in predominantly black
neighborhoods, and 26 percent to 45 percent lower in other places
with large minority populations.
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Prices for lower-fat milk were also higher at grocery stores in
black neighborhoods, which may be due in part to the presence of
more convenience stores and fewer supermarkets in these communities.
On average, a gallon of skim milk cost 50 cents more in black
neighborhoods than in white areas, and 1 percent-fat milk cost 38
cents more.
Around 23.5 million Americans live in communities known as food
deserts because residents lack easy access to supermarkets selling
high-quality, fresh produce, according to the USDA.
Often, the local food supply is driven by the socioeconomic status
of community residents, said Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center
for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington in
Seattle.
One reason stores in poor communities don’t stock skim milk is
because it doesn’t sell, Drewnowski, who wasn’t involved in the
study, said by email.
“Food stores in low income neighborhoods will have a limited range
of luxury goods like fresh fruit and vegetables or fish and
poultry,” he said. “Yes, those have become luxury goods, like it or
not.”
But it’s also possible that skim milk doesn’t sell because it’s so
much more expensive than whole milk, said Tamara Dubowitz, a
nutrition researcher at RAND Corporation in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
“Food store owners would likely say that the store inventory is
based on consumer demand, and that prices are based on algorithms of
store turnover,” Dubowitz, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by
email. “Yet from a food justice perspective, it is easy to see that
differential availability and pricing would make for differential
consumption.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1IfNAXH Journal of the Academy of Nutrition
and Dietetics, online June 2, 2015.
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