News Brief

Medpage Today reported that the more kinds of restaurants you have where you live, the less likely people in your area are to have higher Body Mass Index or obesity.

Note the word, “kinds.” The researchers found that areas dominated by fast-food restaurants do show higher obesity levels.

“Overall, the more restaurants in an area, the better the population’s weight status, Virginia Chang, M.D., Ph.D., and Neil Mehta, M.Sc., of the University of Pennsylvania, reported in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“…. when they divided the restaurants into two categories, fast food (customers pay before eating) versus full service (pay after eating), the researchers found that individuals living in areas with an abundance of full-service restaurants were likely to resist weight gain, whereas those with a higher ratio of fast-food places were likely to put on pounds, they reported.

“Eating out instead of cooking at home continues to increase as an influence on the American diet. And one factor implicated in the increasing obesity of Americans is the patronage of restaurants, the researchers noted.”

Source: Medpage Today, January 10, 2008

Citation: American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Volume 33, Issue 4, Supplement 1, October 2007, Pages S240-S245
Bridging the Gap – Research Informing Practice and Policy for Healthy Youth Behavior