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Pilot environmental assessment of carry‐outs menus in low‐income neighborhoods of Baltimore City
Author(s) -
Good Michael,
Lee Seung Hee,
Hwang Diane,
Gittelsohn Joel
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.973.3
Subject(s) - checklist , low income , environmental health , healthy food , carry (investment) , observational study , portion size , business , added sugar , geography , medicine , agricultural science , socioeconomics , agricultural economics , sugar , food science , psychology , biology , economics , finance , pathology , cognitive psychology
A high proportion of the diet of low income urban African Americans comes from conveniently located prepared food sources. However, little information is available on the menu selection of the hundreds of carry‐out restaurants located in low income areas of Baltimore. We conducted an assessment of healthy food options available in carryouts in the low income neighborhoods of East and West Baltimore using an observational checklist. We assessed 144 prepared food sources to determine their healthy menu score (# of lower fat and/or lower sugar foods offered out of 42 possible). The mean menu score was 9.2, ranging from 1 to 18, out of 42. Despite our overall findings, a few healthier food items were commonly found on menus, including 77.8% offering low fat turkey/chicken, 71.5% offering water, 69.4% offering diet soda, 49.3% offering grilled chicken, 47.9% offering a vegetable entrée, 37.5% offering salad with greens, and 26.4% offering cooked greens. These findings will be used to develop an intervention to increase the availability of healthy options in local carry‐outs by focusing on foods that have already been shown to be acceptable to consumers. Grant Funding Source : Diabetes Research and Translation Center