COMMUNITY FOOD ENVIRONMENT
ENACT STRATEGY: Limit Fast Food
Reduce the negative impact of fast food restaurant chains on community health
Fast food restaurants have a negative effect on community health and vitality. Almost all of the foods they sell are bad for health; eating fast food has been linked with many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color -- where healthy foods are often inaccessible -- are disproportionately impacted by an abundance of fast food restaurants and aggressive fast food advertising. Fast food restaurants also cluster around schools, creating unhealthy environments for our young people. In fact, the fast food industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on marketing to children, who, because of their early developmental stage, are particularly vulnerable to such practices. Finally, many fast food jobs are part-time and low-wage, lack benefits, have high turnover, and do not provide quality employment opportunities for community residents. Community efforts to reduce the harmful impact of fast food can focus on policies such as zoning restrictions, menu labeling laws, and restrictions on marketing to children.
Characteristics of communities that limit fast food's presence:
- Require chain restaurants to label their menus with calorie counts
- Limit drive-through zoning permits to restaurants selling health foods
- Limit the number and location of fast food restaurants
- Ban unhealthy products (e.g. trans fats)
- Limit promotional toy giveaways to healthy products*
* = for more information and resources, see Food Marketing Strategy
Corporate Accountability International: Value [the] Meal Campaign
This campaign, which blends grassroots and national tactics, is working to hold the fast food industry responsible for its impact on individual and community health. Among other things, Value [the] Meal demands changes to harmful marketing practices aimed at children and calls for limitations on industry involvement in scientific research and political lobbying.
Fast Food Primer: A Tool for Community Advocates
This brief answers common questions about fast food, its health impact, and labor practices. It also offers recommendations for how community members and advocacy organizations can work to reduce the impacts of major fast food restaurant chains.
Menu Labeling in Chain Restaurants: Opportunities for Public Policy
This report, prepared by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, was designed to inform the general public and policy-makers about menu labeling, and then to help them decide whether such an ordinance would be appropriate and feasible for their specific community.
Model Menu Labeling Ordinance
“If restaurants provide nutritional information on their menus, consumers can make informed choices about the food they eat and buy for their families. The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) developed this model menu labeling law for states and municipalities that wish to require certain types of restaurants to disclose product information to consumers.”
The Use of Zoning to Restrict Fast Food Outlets: A Potential Strategy to Combat Obesity
The Centers for Law and the Public’s Health conducted a Zoning Laws, Fast Food, and Obesity Project. Resources outlining the scientific basis and legal precedent for zoning laws that address fast food restaurants, and providing examples of such laws, are available here.
Fighting Junk Food Marketing to Kids: A Toolkit for Advocates
Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) “developed this toolkit to help community advocates understand how food marketing affects kids’ health and what they can do about it at the local level.” In addition to background information and solutions to the problem, this toolkit includes engaging activities and concrete resources to use in organizing your community to take action.
New York Calorie Labeling Amendment
This New York City health code requires food service establishments that sell standardized food products to prominently display information about the calorie content of each menu item.
Boston Artificial Trans Fat Ban
This ban, which went into effect in September 2008, prohibits trans fat in all products sold in food service establishments, vending machines, and mobile food vendors.
Arcata Formula Restaurant Ordinance
Adopted by the Arcata City Council, this ordinance limits the number of formula (i.e. fast food) restaurants in the city to no more than nine at any one time.
Detroit Official Zoning Ordinance
This ordinance, passed by the Detroit City Council, establishes a minimum distance between certain carry-out, fast-food, and drive-in restaurants to the nearest point of an elementary, junior high, or senior high school site.
Los Angeles Fast Food Moratorium
This ordinance created a one year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South and Southeast Los Angeles.
This ordinance prohibits fast food, drive-in and formula food establishments within the city of Carmel.
**More examples of fast food related policies are available on our Local Policy Database.
California Center for Public Health Advocacy
The California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that raises awareness about critical public health issues and mobilizes communities to promote the establishment of effective state and local health policies” Among other issues, CCPHA is focused on improving the food environment for all Californians, and recently advocated successfully for the establishment of menu labeling requirements across the state.
Center for Science in the Public Interest
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a strong advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science. Among other things, CSPI seeks to counter industry’s powerful influence on public opinion and public policies.
National Policy and Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity
The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) has three focus areas, one of which is how physical environments (“built environments”) shape community health. NPLAN provides legal research, model policies, fact sheets, toolkits, training and technical assistance. It is a project of Public Health Law and Policy.
Racial Segregation as a Fundamental Cause of Fast Food Density in Black Neighborhoods**
This article argues that race-based residential segregation is a fundamental cause of fast food density in Black neighborhoods. Segregation’s effects on population and economic characteristics, physical infrastructure, and social processes work in tandem to increase the likelihood that Black neighborhoods in urban environments will bear a disproportionate burden of fast food restaurants.
Kwate, N.O.A. Fried chicken and fresh apples: Racial segregation as
a fundamental cause of fast food density in black neighborhoods.
Health & Place. 2008: 14: 32-44.
Fast Food, Race/Ethnicity and Income: A Geographic Analysis
This study looked at the number of fast food restaurants in different communities. The authors found that “predominantly black neighborhoods have 2.4 fast food restaurants per square mile compared to 1.5 restaurants in predominantly white neighborhoods.” They concluded that “the link between fast food restaurants and black and low-income neighborhoods may contribute to the understanding of environmental causes of the obesity epidemic in these populations.”
Block, J.P., Scribner, R.A., and DeSalvo, K.B. Fast Food, Race/Ethnicity, and Income: a Geographic Analysis. American Journal of Preventative Medicine. 2004; 27(3): 211-17.
Fast Food Consumption and Increased Caloric Intake: A Systematic Review of a Trajectory Towards Weight Gain and Obesity Risk**
This review of 16 previous studies found that “sufficient evidence exists for public health recommendations to limit fast food consumption and facilitate healthier menu selection.” Further, “as the fast food industry continues to increase both domestically and abroad, the scientific findings and corresponding public health implications of the association between fast food consumption and weight are critical.”
Rosenheck, R. Fast Food Consumption and Increased Caloric Intake: A Systematic Review of a Trajectory Towards Weight Gain and Obesity Risk. Obesity Reviews 2008; 9(6): 535-547.
Obesity Associated with a High Concentration of Fast Food Restaurants**
In this study, researchers examined the relationship between restaurant availability and weight status in 544 US counties. Higher fast food density and a higher ratio of fast food to full-service restaurants were found to be associated with higher obesity rates.
Maddock, J. The Relationship Between Obesity and the Prevalence of Fast Food Restaurants: A State-Level Analysis. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2004; 19 (2): 137-43.
This report reviews the impact of land use regulation on alcohol, tobacco, and firearms and describes the implications for future nutrition-related efforts. A brief history of the public health origins of land use controls and its legal precedent are also provided.
Ashe, M., et al.. Land Use Planning and the Control of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Fast Food Restaurants. American Journal of Public Health. 2003 September; 93 (9): 1404-8.
** We can only provide links to the study abstracts and not the full text.
