People without easy access to a supermarket eat healthier after one opens in their neighborhood, but not because they shop at the new store, new research finds.
A study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs found that opening a grocery store in a "food desert" — an area devoid of healthy eating options — lowered residents' daily total calorie intake as well as their consumption of added sugars, solid fats and alcoholic beverages.
“We found multiple positive changes following the opening of the supermarket in a former food desert,” lead author Tamara Dubowitz, a senior policy researcher at nonprofit research organization RAND Corp., said in a statement. "Yet the changes in diet were not related to use of the supermarket."
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