Food Deserts, Regrowing Knees, and Caffeinated Brains

Food deserts are urban and rural locations with limited access to affordable, healthy food. The US Department of Agriculture officially defines them as low-income areas where the nearest grocery store is more than 1 mile away in cities or more than 10 miles away in rural areas. Nearly 5 million Americans lived in food deserts between 2003 and 2023.

> See where America's grocery stores are located.
> Not everyone's a fan of the term food deserts.

The term was first coined in the UK in the 1990s to describe communities lacking access to nutritious food options. In the US, food desertification has largely been driven by changes in grocery antitrust enforcement. Under the Reagan administration, officials stopped enforcing a 1930s law that prohibited large chains from wielding their purchasing power to secure special deals. As a result of both that policy shift and broader consolidation in the grocery industry, smaller independent retailers often could no longer compete: Whereas more than half of all US grocery stores were independent grocers in 1982, in recent years that figure has fallen to roughly 22%. By some estimates, roughly 70 cents of every grocery dollar now goes to just four grocery conglomerates.

> Everything you want to know about the 1930s law that's no longer enforced.

> Food deserts weren't officially defined in the US until 2008.

> Legislators in the 1930s aimed to limit the power of the grocery chain A&P.

Recent research shows that opening grocery stores in low-income areas will not fully close nutrition gaps, as many residents already travel to supermarkets. Improving food equity requires additional steps, such as enhancing nutrition education and ensuring stores sell culturally appropriate foods.

> Policy research in 2018 found that households in ZIP codes considered food deserts still buy almost 90% of their groceries from supermarkets. (More)

Discover more: 

> Food stamps had their largest expansion under Nixon. (More)

> See how one elderly DC resident navigates living in a food desert. (More)
>... explore everything we've learned about Food Deserts.

 News in Context 

1440 brings you the knowledge and context behind recent intriguing stories:

Developing synthetic blood is a new $73M DARPA effort. (More)

> Adults typically have up to six quarts of blood in their bodies.

> Nature is a riot of color—some animals have green blood, others have blue.

Researchers are trying to regrow knees for osteoarthritis patients. (More, free w/email)

> See normal cartilage vs. the degenerative cartilage seen in osteoarthritis.

> ICYMI: Everything 1440 learned about arthritis.

Protein-degrading drugs, novel therapies that mimic cells' recycling system, are attracting billions for Parkinson's, cancer, and more. (More)

> See how protein-degrading drugs work. 

> Explore a pharma company's timeline on the rise of these medications.

The pope was diagnosed with lung cancer; in recent years, more nonsmokers, young people, and women are getting the disease. (More)

> A Stanford physician with lung cancer teaches a course on being a patient.

> See a breakdown of cancer diagnoses, types, and deaths for 2026.

 Medical Developments Spotlight 

We love spending time learning about the latest medical breakthroughs and spotlighting research that piques our interest, may influence future research directions, or inform healthcare conversations. Here's what we found this week.

Kids who drink as little as one coffee per week have very slight brain structure differences linked to sleep loss and experience worse mental health.

Jane Kirby | The Independent. Researchers studied the caffeine consumption, sleep, and mental health of more than 9,500 children ages 9 to 11 for 18 months and scanned their brains. They found that greater caffeine consumption was associated with slightly lower surface area across the cortex and more mental health challenges. Preteens tended to get their caffeine from soda more than coffee. (More)

> Typically, coffee has three times more caffeine than sodas.

An experimental E. coli vaccine was shelved last year after late-stage clinical trial results failed to show it provided good protection—and new data shows why.

CIDRAP| Chris Dall. Though the vaccine initially looked promising, as it didn't break down quickly and led vaccine recipients to develop antibodies against the common pathogen, it had only 14.6% efficacy—a threshold too low to consider it effective. Eleven study participants who received the vaccine still developed invasive E. coli disease, only slightly lower than the 13 in the placebo group. (More)

> E. coli infection is a common cause of traveler's diarrhea.

> The world's longest-running evolution experiment has tracked genetic changes in E. coli across more than 80,000 generations since 1988.

Early data analysis suggests women with a common hormonal disorder called PMOS may have an elevated risk of developing dementia.

Newsweek | Jasmine Laws. The association was identified in a new review of existing studies on PMOS, but the results were mixed, perhaps due to study design inconsistencies. Study authors said their findings should trigger more research into this possible link. They suggest the connection could make sense due to conditions that may occur with PMOS, including sleep disturbances, insulin resistance, and obesity—which can also heighten dementia risk. (More)

> PMOS can cause irregular periods and affects roughly one in eight women.

 Etcetera 

> Scientists are reconstructing ancient smells for museum visitors to sniff.

> "Old people" smell is real—and has been studied for more than two decades.

> International law says countries have 24 hours to notify the WHO about big health threats that could cross borders.

> GLP-1s are under investigation for treating Parkinson's, addictions, and more.

> Here's how electrochemical signals are converted so that we can hear.

> Americans' dislike of body odor is actually relatively recent.

> Visualize America's measles burden and the vaccination rates in outbreak areas.
 

> Investigators look for dead birds as a sign of West Nile virus.

> Artificial sweeteners aren't typically helpful for losing weight.

> Shoddy lab safety practices led to the discovery of aspartame.

> Similarly, penicillin was discovered due to lax lab procedures over the summer.

> Europe approved a combined mRNA-based flu and COVID-19 shot.