Food Environment

This layer contains data on the modified retail food environment index for California, its regions, counties, cities, towns, and census tracts. An adequate, nutritious diet is a necessity at all stages of life. Pregnant women and their developing babies, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults depend on adequate nutrition for optimum development and maintenance of health and functioning. Nutrition also plays a significant role in causing or preventing a number of illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, some cancers, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and anemia. The modified retail food environment index table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project (HCI) of the Office of Health Equity. The goal of HCI is to enhance public health by providing data, a standardized set of statistical measures, and tools that a broad array of sectors can use for planning healthy communities and evaluating the impact of plans, projects, policy, and environmental changes on community health.