In Chicago, your zip code can determine your life expectancy as diet-related health issues rise to triple the national average rate in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods.

 

Chicago is loved for its deep-dish pizza and diverse culinary options, but people don’t realize how common food insecurity is in our city.

 

The Food Empowerment Project reported that over 500k Chicagoans live in food deserts and over a million people face hunger in Illinois. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as an area with “a poverty rate of at least 20 percent and where at least a third of the population lives more than a mile from a grocery store”. 

 

In Chicago, one in five Chicago households faces food insecurity, and the rates are rising. In 2022 the Chicago Greater Food Depository found that food insecurity rates in Chicago overall went up by 11%, but for Black individuals, it increased by 37% in the last year. 

 

In Chicago Greater Food Depository’s 2022 hunger status report, the “crisis of inequity” affects Black and Latino families at double the rate of White households:  

 

• Black households: 26%

• Latino households: 24%

• White households: 11% 

 

Monica Peek from the University of Chicago states that food insecurity is a symptom of “poverty…structural racism and system inequity.”

 

The trendy restaurants advertised on social media and high-end grocery stores are typically at tourist locations and gentrified neighborhoods with mostly white residents. 

 

Englewood, which is 92% Black individuals, “has the second-highest food insecurity rate and lowest income per capita,” (I Grow Chicago). While Near North Side has 70% White residents that live within a half-mile of at least one grocery store. 

 

Chicago Neighborhoods with lower incomes reported the highest rates of food insecurity. Confirming this, an analysis done why McKinsey in 2021, found that countries in the US with above-average Black populations have fewer grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers' markets.

 

Hao Huang, a professor at Illinois Tech,  found in her research that 49% of the communities with a below-average number of supermarkets in Chicago are Black.

 

Dr. John Jay Shannon, the former CEO of the Cook County Health Department, says that certain ZIP codes largely impact health conditions and premature death rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or kidney disease. All these health conditions are mainly found in low-income neighborhoods with few grocery store options.

 

One cause is the journey to the stores. Food transportation barriers make individuals have no option but to take multiple public transport rides far distances to shop. 

 

This means they’re spending more money than someone who can walk so many Chicagoans resort to the easier option; fast food. 

 

Diets make a large impact on one's health. An unhealthy diet high in fat and cholesterol, often found in fast food, can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

 

In the last two decades, Chicago’s obesity rate has increased by 30%. According to the CDC, obesity is a “major problem” in Chicago. About 36% of high school students and 62% of adults are overweight in the Chicagoland area. 

 

They go on to say that Black and Hispanic children in Chicago are four times more likely to be obese than White kids. This is a serious implication because obesity is the leading one cause of diabetes. 

 

Diet-related health conditions can impact one’s life expectancy as well. According to Cook County’s Public Health report, heart disease is the number one leading cause of death with over 5.5k fatalities in 2020. Diabetes and kidney disease ranked ninth and tenth. 

 

Food insecurity is a large-scale problem but scholars are doing extensive research to find solutions to food inequity.

 

Peek says the one solution is helping fund nutritious and affordable grocery stores being built. Another of hers is implementing a mandatory screening question at hospitals and clinics about food insecurity. Lastly, it will supply more patients with resources for SNAP benefits, food pantries, and food delivery services. 

 

Huang supports this by saying her research can help reduce health inequities by guiding urban planners to pick the right location for a new grocery store. 

 

The CDC has been working toward food insecurity as well. They promote the implementation of “comprehensive school-based policies and practices,” to try and make CPS a “healthier environment.” In order to teach students about healthy diets, nutrition, and exercise.

 

They also divided up $800k and awarded it to 10 community-based organizations fighting for obesity prevention. 

 

Chicago’s structural racism is costing the lives of its residents, but hopefully, with the continuation of organizations' support, they can close the gap in diet-related health disparities.