Ban On Certain Fast Food Restaurants In South LA Had No Effect On Obesity Rates

March 20, 2015
Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) â€” A much-hailed law that singular a opening of new stand-alone fast-food restaurants in one of a lowest sections of Los Angeles did not quell plumpness or urge diets, a new investigate found.

City lawmakers upheld a zoning bidding in 2008 that singular a opening or enlargement of fast-food outlets in a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10 that struggles with high plumpness rates and other health problems.

The law, believed to be a initial bid of a kind by a vital city to urge open health, did not anathema new eateries in frame malls.

The investigate by a Rand Corp. consider tank found that plumpness rates in South Los Angeles continued to arise after thoroughfare of a law.

“It had no suggestive effect,” Rand comparison economist Roland Sturm said. “There’s no justification that diets have softened some-more in South LA. Obesity and overweight rates have not fallen.”

Health experts pronounced a singular involvement would not retreat a plumpness problem. People also have to practice and make lifestyle changes, they said.

“It’s not only about tying diseased food, though augmenting entrance to healthy food,” pronounced Alex Ortega, a highbrow of open health during a University of California, Los Angeles, who had no purpose in a study.

Rand researchers reviewed permits released by a Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, that inspects food outlets. There were no licenses for stand-alone fast-food restaurants, though bondage non-stop 17 new outlets in frame offered centers and food courts in South Los Angeles from 2008 to 2012.

Almost half of a new food permits were for preference stores that sell soda and junk food, a investigate found.

Researchers also compared plumpness rates in South Los Angeles and other tools of a county regulating surveys that asked residents to news their weight and eating habits.

Before a fast-food ordinance, 63 percent of South Los Angeles residents reported being overweight or portly compared with 57 percent in other tools of a county. Three years after a bidding went into effect, 75 percent of South Los Angeles residents reported being overweight or portly compared with 58 percent in other tools of a county.

Supporters pronounced a bidding worked since it prevented bondage from opening new restaurants during vital intersections with their possess drive-thru windows and parking lots. They concurred it will take some time to see health gains though remarkable that a area has seen farmers markets and village gardens in new years.

“We never pronounced this bidding was a china bullet” to elucidate a plumpness problem, pronounced Gwen Flynn of a Community Health Councils. “As prolonged as we can make certain people have some-more options, that’s a critical thing.”

City Councilman Bernard Parks, who upheld a zoning law, pronounced he was carefree that a area can attract some-more markets offered uninformed food.

The bidding was against by a California Restaurant Association. Spokeswoman Janna Haynes pronounced a organisation had no criticism on a Rand study.

Standing outward a McDonald’s in a Leimert Park area on Wednesday, Edward Cox lamented a miss of path cafes.

“I wish to lay down and eat, though there’s no place to lay down and eat,” pronounced a retiree, who customarily drives to another area to sup out.

Cox pronounced he’s carefree that a designed light rail line will attract a accumulation of new eateries.

Maurice Thrower, who runs a burger corner sandwiched between fast-food chains, pronounced he offers healthier transport such as vegetarian and turkey burgers.

“Once people stop to eat here, they come back,” pronounced Thrower, who non-stop Simply Delicious Burgers final year.

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Contact a contributor during http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia .

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/20/fast-food-ban-obesity-la_n_6910012.html?utm_hp_ref=los-angeles&ir=Los+Angeles