Study Questions Effectiveness of South Los Angeles Fast-Food Restaurant Ban

A new Rand Corporation study claims that South Los Angeles’ 2008 ban on new or expanded fast-food restaurants is unlikely to improve residents’ diets or reduce obesity because the area actually has a lower concentration of these establishments per capita than other areas of the city. Researchers apparently discovered that South Los Angeles has an abundance of small food stores and other food outlets where
residents consumed significantly more “discretionary” calories from sugary or salty snacks and soft drinks compared to residents of wealthier neighborhoods.

The ban, approved by the Los Angeles City Council in August 2008, “may have been an important first by being concerned with health outcomes, but it is not the most promising approach to lowering the high rate of obesity in South Los Angeles,” the study’s lead author was quoted as saying. “It does not address the main differences we see in the food environment between Los Angeles neighborhoods nor in the diet of residents.”

Researchers said that the density of small food stores in South Los Angeles was about double that of the county average and more than three times the number in West Los Angeles. They also said that South Los Angeles residents are more like to purchase items from a food cart or mobile vendor and less likely to eat in a sit-down restaurant. See Rand Corporation News Release, October 6, 2009.