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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Uphill battle for nutrition

Jamie Tobias Neely

Which will your child’s snack be? A Slurpee and a Snickers bar? Or a handful of fresh apricots and a piece of string cheese?

If you’re a kid living in a poorer neighborhood, the first option’s likely to be considerably more accessible than the second.

But this summer, as rows of beans and tomatoes ripen on the White House lawn and a renewed passion for gardening extends across the country, a few more bags of fresh, locally grown apricots and tomatoes are finding their way into even Spokane’s poorest neighborhoods.

This summer farmers markets appear in both the West Central and East Central districts. Last Thursday, a group of kids sat outside The Book Parlor on Broadway and sold fresh produce from community gardens to neighbors on the street.

A couple of hours later across town, a Catholic Charities staff member helped food-stamp recipients slide their Quest cards through an electronic card reader to buy tokens good for fresh, locally grown produce at the South Perry Farmers Market. With the help of that machine, provided with a grant through the Washington State Farmers Market Association, now about a third of the transactions on the card reader (which also takes debit and credit cards) are from food-stamp recipients.

What does it matter?

Adam Drewnowski, director of the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition, has conducted research that helps explain why rates of nutrition-related diseases such as diabetes are highest among Americans living in poverty. He’s found healthy food is both more expensive and less accessible than junk food.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control announced the results of a new health study which estimated that the annual health care costs related to obesity in this country reached $147 billion in 2008.

As the country struggles to reform the health care system, it will be critically important to tackle the issues that have led to contemporary American eating patterns.

Connie Copeland Malone, who works with Project Hope in the West Central area, a program designed to develop a sense of community and keep kids out of gangs, has watched the food choices in that neighborhood decline.

“We’ve lived here 15 years,” she said Thursday, standing in a small outdoor market on Broadway. “Years ago you could walk to the grocery store and buy fresh vegetables. Your choices now (from nearby convenience stores) are cigarettes, soda, alcohol and candy.”

Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition, food studies and public health, points out that food marketing aimed at children can have a significant impact on their choices.

At the produce stand on Thursday, kids bantered about sampling the fresh beans and broccoli on display from the community gardens. Jamey Edwards works with teens who help plant and weed community gardens in West Central. She said the kids relish watching the plants they tended yield fresh zucchini and tomatoes.

“They’re excited because they’ve done all the work,” she says. “They’re excited because it tastes good.”

Especially popular last week were the fresh apricots picked from a tree on one of the West Central garden lots.

Still, those apricots have stiff competition.

A Slurpee and a Snickers bar are much easier to come by – and much more heavily marketed.

Compare the two snacks: A handful of apricots and a piece of string cheese will give a kid 120 calories containing 34 percent of the daily requirement for Vitamin A, 22 percent for calcium, 15 percent for Vitamin C and at least 12 percent of the day’s protein.

A 16-ounce Slurpee and a Snickers bar provide 540 calories. The Slurpee has virtually no nutritional value, and the candy bar provides a scant 4 grams of protein, 4 percent of daily calcium and 2 percent of the day’s iron.

The apricot tree, miracle that it is, sits quietly, modestly bearing its summer fruit. And the farmers markets that might sell its small golden orbs in church parking lots are now being threatened by state taxes.

Meanwhile, Snickers and Slurpee both have kid-friendly Web sites with Hollywood-level technology. And 7-Eleven is running a promotion for its new summer flavor, tied to the release of “G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra.” It’s the incredibly macho, electric blue Liquid Artillery Slurpee.

If only it were the other way around.

Jamie Tobias Neely is an assistant professor of journalism at Eastern Washington University. She may be reached at jamietobiasneely@ comcast.net.