Visit any grocery or convenience store, and you’ll be greeted by enticing displays of chips, soda and candy. That’s not an accident. Junk food makers offer big incentives to stores in exchange for prime product placement and promotion. Healthy eating advocates say that marketing strategy contributes to obesity and other health problems, especially in areas where healthy food is hard to come by. But in Kansas City, Kansas, a health program aims to turn the tables and give fruits and vegetables a fighting chance for customer attention. Alex Smith, reporting for KCUR’s Heartland Health Monitor, has the story.
Heartland Health Monitor is a regional reporting collaborative of public media stations in the Midwest.