While I don’t find myself agreeing with Rahm Emanuel on many things even this article to some extent, I do agree with him that nutrition and good health habits go a long way to strengthening the immune systems and thereby increasing Covid 19 survival rates. That is true whether you live in a poor community or a wealthy one.

I also agree with him that the poor generally speaking have poorer health habits for a host of reasons. Poor communities have become pandemic hot spots. But where I disagree is that good health is not an option for most of them and that “food deserts” are a cause.

For many urban African American poor, it requires changing decades old cultural habits. African American cultural foods are derived from the South, where deep frying and other unhealthy food habits today evolved to make food tasty and perhaps even safer when they evolved. Deep frying kills a lot of bacteria. African American food is full of calories and designed for people that performed hard physical labor all day working manual labor jobs… It is not designed for urban dwellers.

I can sympathize as a college football athlete who competed at 275 lbs, I developed bad food habits when I was young and I can’t blame a lack of financial resources or access to healthy food for the reason I am presently 270 pounds. It can be hard to overcome “culture” learned at a young age.

So let’s get specific to Chicago.

My wife is Chinese, so when I lived in Indianapolis, I used to drive all the way to Chinatown in Chicago four times a year so my wife could stock up on Chinese sauces and other Chinese food products. Chinatown is located smack dab in one of the poorest parts of Chicago. The rule was don’t go there at night and don’t venture out of the area.

But in that small area were plenty of small Chinese merchants selling fresh food and vegetables at reasonable prices, all within easy walking distance of some of the poorest areas of Chicago. I saw very few African Americans availing themselves of this fresh and healthy produce. It wasn’t that it was not there… it was not what they were looking for.

So while I find myself agreeing with the ex mayor that unhealthy eating is partially to blame for the increased incidences of Covid 19 in poor areas (along with things like the poor tend to work in service jobs which bring them into more contact with other people), I don’t agree that healthy food is unavailable, it simply is not on the menu.

The ex mayor espouses the success he had getting businesses to open up grocery stores in poor parts of Chicago. It was not because he was so persuasive, it was good business. Often the issues blocking businesses from doing business in poor communities come down to two issues… regulations and security. If a city works with entrepreneurs to overcome these issues, the businesses will follow. No extra Federal money is needed, just good city government.

So the first place I would look at is what government regulations or lack of services like good law enforcement is causing entrepreneurs not to open in “food deserts”. New Federal programs won’t solve local and state regulatory or security problems. If there is a market and those businesses can operate safely, they will open without any need of any Federal or State money.

But even addressing “food deserts” is not going to change the reality of bad food culture in poor urban areas. It is a cultural issue, that needs to be address at a very young age. Michelle Obama tried to impact that aspect of the problem.

All the healthy food options in the world has not made me thin… and it won’t work in poor communities either. Instead changing culture in urban areas to adapt to the lower caloric needs in those areas as well as making it easier for small business to operate will insure both access to healthy food and demand for healthy food.