L.A. Has Actually Gotten Fatter Since Fast Food Ban

In 2008 the city of Los Angeles decided that South L.A. was too fat for comfort, so they set up a bill where no more fast food restaurants could be built in the city. The restaurants that had already set up shop were safe, but after that, no new fast food joints ever popped up again.

Sounded like a good idea. The obesity rate was at a staggering 63 percent at the time and the villainous greasy mega-chains had to be stopped.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

According to a study from the Rand Corporation, the obesity rate in South L.A. actually increased by 12 percent since then.

The obesity rate rose through all of Los Angeles, but more so in the cities where the fast food ban took place. It’s like L.A. felt they had to rebelliously chase the forbidden fruit and get fat with it.

No need to get jealous of the Californians though, we’ve all gotten fatter as a country. It’s not quite as dramatic, but as a whole, the obesity rate in the US went up from 57 percent to 58 percent.

A report from the Community Health Councils challenges the obesity spike, saying that obesity in South L.A. actually dropped by 3 percent.

If you aren’t tired of all these studies yet, statistics from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found that from 2009 to 2013, the obesity percentage in South L.A. dropped a bit from 35.4 percent to 32.7 percent.

So depending on who you believe, L.A. has either gotten a hell of a lot more obese, or slightly less obese, but fairly obese nonetheless.

h/t LA Times