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Food Researcher Questions 'N.Y. Times'

A food researcher has taken issue with an article in The New York Times this week that quoted two new studies undercutting the connection between food deserts — neighborhoods lacking access to fresh foods — and obesity.

According to the article, the studies, from the Rand Corp. and the Public Policy Institute of California, found that poor urban neighborhoods have more, not fewer, grocery stores and supermarkets than affluent ones, and that there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents. 

However, in a detailed rebuttal released this week, Mari Gallagher, principal of Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group, attacked the article for creating "the inaccurate impression that food access and the concept of food deserts does not matter.” Gallagher is the author of several studies on food access, including a seminal 2006 report looking at the impact of food deserts on public health in Chicago.

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