Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Obesity

5 Things the USDA Learned From Its First National Survey of Food Access

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 10, 2015 | 17 Comments

The links between transportation, development patterns, and people’s access to healthy food are under increasing scrutiny from policy makers trying to address America’s obesity epidemic. Here’s some new data that sheds light on Americans’ access to fresh food. The USDA recently completed the first “National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey,” which delves into where people buy their food and how they get there. […]

Study: Transit Commuters Have Less Body Fat Than Those Who Drive to Work

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 21, 2014 | 12 Comments

Those who commute by car are piling on the pounds faster than people who ride bikes — and take transit — to work, according to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal. The study looked at health and commuting data over time for about 7,500 people in the United Kingdom. When controlling for factors like […]

Seattle Opens Up Neighborhood Streets for Kids to Play

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 5, 2014 | 7 Comments

At St. Terese Academy in Seattle last week, students held relay races on 35th Avenue. It was field day at the Madrona neighborhood school, and thanks to a new initiative from the city of Seattle, the kids had some extra space to stretch their legs. The elementary school was the first to take part in Seattle’s new […]

More Walking and Biking, Better Health: New Evidence From American Cities

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 17, 2014 | 4 Comments

New data from the Alliance for Biking and Walking’s 2014 Benchmarking report bears out the notion that people tend to be healthier in cities where walking and biking are more prevalent. The Alliance compiled active commuting rates in the 50 largest American cities as measured by the U.S. Census. Then it compared that data with health information […]

TED Talk: OKC Mayor Mick Cornett on Designing a City for Fitness

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 6, 2014 | 1 Comment

I got to know Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett last year, when I interviewed him at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors. We talked about his realization that he and his constituents (generally speaking) were obese, and how he stood in front of the elephants at the zoo on New Year’s […]

Study: Kids Who Live in Walkable Neighborhoods Get More Exercise

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 11, 2013 | 15 Comments

A study published this month in the American Journal of Preventive Health finds that children who live in walkable places — “smart growth neighborhoods,” to use the authors’ phrase — get significantly more exercise than their peers who live in suburban environments designed for driving. Researchers from UC Berkeley monitored the activity of 59 children […]

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