Are walkable areas easier on waistlines?

The more fast-food options near your home, the thinner you are.

Researchers at the University of Utah, who surveyed state residents, found that living closer to a larger variety of restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets and fast-food outlets actually lowers the risk for obesity, affecting "both your energy input and output," said Cathleen Zick, coauthor of the study and professor of family and consumer studies at the U.

"A healthy grocery option may influence the food you choose to buy, while having multiple food destinations within walking distance might encourage you to walk, rather than drive, to your next meal," she said.

Lindy Margetts, of Holladay, said the grocery store at which she likes to shop is not convenient to get to, which makes the pizza and burrito joints around the corner more of a default for family meals.

"If I had more choices, I'd probably eat a lot better," she said.

Instead of placing restrictions on fast-food outlets, the study suggests that increasing the number of available options in a specific neighborhood could reduce obesity risks in the overall population. The results are even more potent in lower-income environments, where a full-service grocery store "means more" to residents, and "access to private transportation may be limited," Zick said.

"We can speculate this is because people with access to private transportation are more likely to drive to the grocery story anyway, whereas having restaurants within walking distance may encourage walking," she said. "It is residents with no nearby food options who are at greatest risk of obesity. Not only are they without healthy grocery options nearby, there are no destinations to walk to, not even fast food. They must drive."

Residents in walkable neighborhoods, which are more densely populated, pedestrian-friendly and provide a range of destinations for pedestrians, are found to be at less risk of being obese or overweight.

Results of the study, which will be published in the November issue of Social Science and Medicine, compare the body mass index of nearly 500,000 Salt Lake County residents with food-related business addresses in their neighborhoods. Researchers found that people were 10 percent less likely to be obese if they lived in a neighborhood with more diverse food options.

Using a composite of various information databases — the 2000 Census, the 2008 Dun and Bradstreet business directory and the Utah Population Database at the U. — researchers found that nearly half of Salt Lake County residents have a mix of food options in their neighborhoods, while 30 percent have access to at least one retail food outlet and the remaining 30 percent live in "food deserts," neighborhoods with no retail food options.

The results, Zick said, provide significant policy and planning implications for ongoing development of neighborhoods and communities in Utah.

e-mail: wleonard@desnews.com