Food availability in low income urban areas is most definitely scarce, and it has been proven that people who inhabitant such areas tend to eat significantly less healthy food than their urban, decent earning counterparts. It has also been noted that most inhabitants of low income areas fall considerably short of achieving federal recommend

standards for intake of fruit, vegetables,  whole grains, dairy products, and are recorded to consume lower amounts of these nutritious dietary options.

There is no doubt that a large reason behind this is due to lack of financial resources. Healthy and organic food is obviously going to be more expensive than its unhealth counterparts. Most people living in slum/low income areas may not have the means to allocate such a large amount of their financial savings for food alone. Even the people in these areas who do have decent money will be more taxed to use their money for more pressing issues than healthy food. Households that receive benefits such as food stamps or SNAP assistance may be more inclined to use the money awarded to them to spend on better dietary options, but unfortunately there is not much importance placed on healthy eating in such areas.

There is usually much more pressing and serious issues going on in these areas such as drug abuse, crime, poverty, etc. To focus on healthy dietary options. Food joints such as fast food establishments are aware of the fact that there cheaper offerings will be far better received in these areas as well, thus they are more likely to set up shop in such neighborhoods. Due to the abundance of rather unhealthy establishments, lack of information on such topics, and lack of financial resources, most residents of such areas are forced to stick to their unhealthy options.

Research conducted at Yale university has also shown that food produce tends to be of far lower quality in slum areas, potentially due to the fact that many of the supermarkets and corner stores may not have as large of financial resources needed to obtain high quality product which obviously costs more. Unfortunately, a combination of these manydifferent factos places residents of low income urban areas at further risk for a multitude of health issues such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, mental health issues, malnourishment, and many other related serious health conditions. 

Healthy foods scarce in poor neighborhoods, Yale researchers find. YaleNews. (2018, February 28). Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://news.yale.edu/2008/09/10/healthy-foods-scarce-poor-neighborhoods-yale-researchers-find