UNCG Professor Conducts Study Examining Walmart And Obesity

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/s...57257&catid=57

Greensboro, NC -- A UNCG Economics professor co-authored a study examining
the impact of Walmart Supercenters on people's body weight and obesity.

Charles Courtemanche and a fellow researcher from Rhodes College, Art
Carden, conducted the study entitled, "Supersizing supercenters? The
impact of Walmart Supercenters on body mass index and obesity."

They looked at data from 1996-2005, including almost 1,600 Walmart
Supercenters across the country.

The study took about 1.6 million Americans and examined how their health
and weight changed after a Walmart Supercenter opened in their area. "What
we found is when a Walmart Supercenter enters a particular county, on
average the residents of that county gain about a pound and a half and
maybe more strikingly is that the obesity rate in that county goes up to
by about two percentage points," said Courtemanche.

In other words, "Two out of every hundred people in that county were not
obese before Walmart entered and are obese now," he said.

RELATED: Walmart Pushes For Healthier Foods

"The effect on obesity is strikingly large and we think it is because
you're targeting a particularly vulnerable subset of the population," said
Courtemanche.

Walmart isn't solely to blame, he said.

"Individuals are responsible for what they eat and for how they exercise.
It's simply saying that Walmart provides a certain set of incentives that
really enables people to make themselves fatter faster," he said.

Incentives such as low prices, and perhaps not-so-healthy food prominently
placed throughout the store, according to Courtemanche.

He said, "Certainly, you shouldn't take this and immediately say Walmart
is bad for your community. It's more I think, I would describe it as you
know, overall a good thing for a community that brings with it some
unintended side effects."

WFMY News 2 contacted Walmart Wednesday and Thursday for comment and has
not heard back.