A new study reveals that historic redlining continues to shape food environments today, with crime, housing and education emerging as key barriers to healthy eating in affected neighbourhoods.
A study led by Sebastian Linde of Texas A&M University School of Public Health suggests that the biggest barriers to healthy food in historically redlined neighbourhoods are not transport or income alone, but a wider pattern of disadvantage that includes crime, housing and schools.
Writing in the journal Obesity, Linde and colleagues at the State University of New York at Buffalo examined nearly 9,600 neighbourhoods across 38 states and compared historic redlining maps with modern food retailer patterns. Their analysis found that communities once marked as undesirable for lending still tend to face poorer food environments today, with fewer grocery stores and a heavier concentration of fast-food outlets.
The research adds to a growing body of work showing that redlining’s effects have outlasted the policy itself, which was outlawed in 1968 after being used since 1934 to deny credit and insurance in neighbourhoods populated largely by racial and ethnic minorities. Earlier studies, including work published in Health & Place and analyses available through PubMed, have likewise linked historic redlining to less healthy food environments, broader social disadvantage and persistent racial segregation in American cities.
Linde said the findings point to a need for more than simply opening new supermarkets. According to the study team, stronger food access is more likely to come from tackling the neighbourhood conditions that shape daily life, including safer streets, better housing and stronger schools, alongside efforts to build trust and community connection.
The authors found that redlined areas scored worse across several overlapping pathways, including the built environment, criminal justice, education, housing, social cohesion, transport and household wealth. Among those factors, crime, housing and education emerged as the strongest drivers of food access. The researchers said this means policy responses should involve housing, planning, public health and local groups rather than focusing narrowly on retail supply.
The study also noted limits. It could not prove cause and effect, it applied only to cities and suburbs, and it did not measure every aspect of food access, such as price or quality. Even so, the authors argued that neighbourhood-level data can help identify where intervention is most needed, especially as adult obesity in the US has risen sharply over the past two decades.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
