

To put it simply, a food desert is a neighborhood far removed from grocery stores that sell healthy food.
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Subsequently, foods high in fat, calories and sugar are too abundant, which encourages unhealthy eating that can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, according to a newly published Walk Score blog.
To help you avoid such locales, Walk Score has developed an online program that helps people find the right neighborhoods where good food is within walking distance.
In addition, the online database has developed a new ranking of the best and worst U.S. cities in terms of healthy food access.
The Best Cities for Food Access
The rankings measure access to healthy food by calculating the percent of people in a city who can walk to a grocery store in five minutes:
Rank | City (500,000-plus pop.) | People with Food Access |
---|---|---|
1 | New York | 72 percent |
2 | San Francisco | 59 percent |
3 | Philadelphia | 57 percent |
4 | Boston | 45 percent |
5 | Washington, D.C. | 41 percent |
The Worst Cities for Food Access
The following cities have the lowest percentage of people who can walk to a grocery store within five minutes:
Rank | City (500,000-plus pop.) | People with Food Access |
---|---|---|
1 | Indianapolis | 5 percent |
2 | Oklahoma City | 5 percent |
3 | Charlotte | 6 percent |
4 | Tucscon | 6 percent |
5 | Albuquerque | 7 percent |
Areas in green indicate where you can walk to a grocery store in five minutes. Photo credit: Walk Score
The rankings are proximity-based and do not include the cost of food. The maps are designed to filter out convenient stores and try to only include grocery stores that sell produce.
Want to see how walkable your city is? Click here.
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