Comments on: It’s My Neighbors Fault I’m Fat

By: Mark’s Daily Apple » Blog Archive » Urban Areas Becoming Supermarket “Deserts”

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:18:35 +0000

[...] It’s My Neighbors Fault I’m Fat [...]

By: Mark’s Daily Apple » Blog Archive » Diet Change and Partner Dynamics

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:39:38 +0000

[...] It’s My Neighbors Fault I’m Fat [...]

By: Migraineur

Migraineur — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:20:22 +0000

Yesterday my husband and I decided to go to Walden Pond. We don’t have a car, but it’s only about a mile and a half from the nearest commuter rail station. For two car-free urbanites, that’s a pretty easy walk.

Or so we thought. Most of the route from the station to the park has no sidewalks! And we weren’t walking through the suburban office park wasteland, either - these were residential neighborhoods, and judging by the sizes of the houses and lots, not poor ones, either.

So it is possible to live a mile from Walden Pond, which is a wonderful place to go hiking or swimming, and be unable to walk there. (We did it, but we were a little nervous about our safety.) We were amused when we arrived at the park and found a $5 “entrance fee” that turned out to be a $5 parking fee. Even the state, which runs the park, assumed that no one would walk. (We made a $5 donation anyway.)

I’m telling this story mostly because it shows that it’s not just poor people who have terrible conditions for the most basic of human activities - walking. The most interesting part is that, for the small stretch of the route that did have sidewalks, there were dozens of people out enjoying the New England late winter sunshine. For the stretch without sidewalks, we were the only ones. If you build it, they will come?

By: MizFit

MizFit — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:14:34 +0000

problem is that neighborhood also plays into socio-economic status which we KNOW impacts all this huh?

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:50:31 +0000

I don’t think the study portrayed parks as a magic bullet. Rather, the lack of safe spaces to walk and move is one reason why people are unfit. If we want to become a healthier nation, we need to address each factor that influences health from physical activity to diet to stress reduction.

By: Huckleberry

Huckleberry — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:51:39 +0000

This is an interesting idea. I do think neighborhood makes a difference in physical activity. People tend to walk more in neighborhoods where stores and schools and workplaces are nearby, and where streets are pleasant/well designed for walking. It also makes sense that having plenty of pleasant and safe parks would inspire people to exercise.

Without having read the original study though (just this piece and the linked article), it does seem that there is more of an association between neighborhood and exercise than proof that neighborhood is a clearly determining factor in exercise level. There are other factors associated with neighborhoods, and I’m unclear how many of those the study controlled for. If someone is, say, working three (not physically intense) jobs because they’re struggling in poverty with a family to raise, they’re probably not going to find time to exercise - and they’re probably going to live in a low-income neighborhood with fewer parks and not-so-nice streets and so forth. Fixing up the neighborhood isn’t going to make it much easier for that person to exercise.

I guess I’m impatient with studies that try to find the one magic bullet. I feel like we look for magic bullets because they appeal to us, and because the complex reality of so many things being responsible for health problems (diet, income disparity, neighborhoods, media messaging, discrimination, education, etc) is too daunting.

Anyway, rant aside, I do find this stuff about neighborhoods interesting.