Food provision and obesity in AmsterdamHealthy and unhealthy foodjoints in the near area of secondary schools

University of Amsterdam, Research Master Metropolitan Studies, Advanced GIS poster presentation, 24-5-2012 Jorn Koelemaij, 5928273 & Stephan Valenta, 0443441

Distict Percentage OverweightBinnenstad 14,8Westpoort -Westerpark 28,7Oud-West 17,4Zeeburg 24,9Bos en Lommer 37,2De Baarsjes 30,4Amsterdam-Noord 29Geuzenveld/Slotermeer 34,4Osdorp 30,2Slotervaart/Overtoomse veld 29,3Zuidoost 25,9Oost/Watergraafsmeer 20,9Amsterdam Oud-Zuid 18,1Zuideramstel 15,7

Source: GGD Amsterdam, 2006

The municipal health service (GGD) of Amsterdam conducted a research about the degree of overweight amongst 14-year old school children throughout the city. They signaled that the amount of children with overweight (or even obesity) has increased rapidly during the past 15 years: today, about 25% of the 14-year old school children in Amsterdam are overweight. Hereby it is striking that the highest percentage of overweight children is to be found at the outskirts of the city, parts that are generally less affluent compared to the more centrally located parts.

Food Deserts in Amsterdam?Although the concept of the ‘Food Desert’ is quite a controversial topic amongst urban researchers, several scholars did try to demonstrate their existence in a number of (particularly American and British) cities. A ‘Food Desert’ is broadly understood as a part of a city in which residents have got limited or no access to an affordable and healthy diet and are thus forced to unilateral or simply unhealthy food (Cummins & Macintyre, 2002). Often the accessibility of (large) supermarkets is regarded as the criterion for a neighborhood whether to be qualified as a Food Desert or not.We conducted the same kind of research regarding the city of Amsterdam, which is visible on the map on the left. Besides the main supermarkets, we also included the main Fast-food chains, namely McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and FEBO. Since supermarkets seem to be quite equally dispersed throughout the city, we did not find any evidence of the existence of anything like a Food Desert in Amsterdam.

Since the district of Bos en Lommer has got the highest percentage of overweight schoolchildren, we decided to look into this area in more detail. On the map it is visualized which foodjoints are accessible within a 7,5 minute (lunchbreak-) walk from the schools. Apparently, there are almost twice as many unhealthy food-joints within these service areas than healthy ones. In this analysis, we included smaller fast-food joints (e.g. kebab shops) as well, while small scaled grocery stores count (besides the larger supermarkets) as the healthy joints.

The lowest percentage of overweight schoolchildren is located in the city center. The amount of healthy and unhealthy foodjoints that can be reached within 7,5 minutes from the 6 secondary schools seems to be almost equal. Since the city center is an important tourist destination, there is a wide variety of food supply from which the schoolchildren can choose during their breaks. It is not known though to what extent these children indeed make use of those different opportunities.

Conclusion

From our analysis, we can conclude that schoolchildren in the city center are confronted with a higher amount of both healthy as unhealthy food than their colleagues in Bos en Lommer, while there is less overweight in the former. Apparently, other causes of overweight do exist besides the vicinity of unhealthy food around their schools. Hence, the idea of banning unhealhty food suppliers near secondary schools (Parool, 2012) is probably not the solution. Perhaps socio-economic or cultural factors play a more important role regarding food habits. Extensive qualitative research can possibly gain more insights considering this question.

Accessible foodjoints City centerHealthy 55

Unhealthy 57

Accessible foodjoints Bos en L.Healthy 5

Unhealthy 9Source: GGD, 2006

Source: GGD, 2006