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Edition: US
2 December 2019
[The Conversation](
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
[Bryan Keogh]
A note from...
Bryan Keogh
Senior Editor, Economy + Business
The unhealthy diets of low-income Americans is a key reason the richest Americans can expect to live 10 to 15 years longer than the poorest.
Many policymakers believe that getting supermarkets to open grocery stores in food deserts – underserved neighborhoods located primarily in low-income areas – will increase access to healthy options and thus reduce the nutritional inequality between rich and poor.
Hunt Allcott, Jean-Pierre Dubé and Molly Schnell wanted to test this theory so they teamed up with three other economists to conduct a study of how household diets changed after more than 1,000 supermarkets opened in food deserts around the country from 2004 to 2016. [Here’s what they found](.
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We love junk food. Mumemories/Shutterstock.com
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[Terri R. Kurtzberg]
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