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food-deserts

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Instagram insights into food deserts

For some areas of the country, limited access to healthy and affordable food is the first problem in chain of linked public health concerns. These areas have become known as “food deserts,” and mostly consist of urban neighborhoods and rural towns. These types of areas are often associated with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other diet-related issues reflective of poor eating habits, and are often measured by the distance people have to travel to get to a large, respectable grocery store. But what is harder to measure, is what these folks are actually eating at every meal. A recent study shed light on this information void by data mining Instagram posts — Finally some scientific  good coming out of all of those hours users spend artfully arranging plates of food, overnight oats and smoothie bowls. The researchers looked at 3 million Instagram posts tagged with food-related words such as “pizza” or “tea.” Next, the researchers,…