{"id":156702,"date":"2023-04-03T21:33:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T21:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?p=156702"},"modified":"2023-08-04T23:08:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T23:08:51","slug":"tianguis-and-access-to-fresh-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/human-social\/tianguis-and-access-to-fresh-food\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mexican tianguis: an alternative for getting fresh food"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eating healthy gets more complicated every day. Rapid urbanization around the world has led to big inequalities in access to healthy food. This motivated a group of architects and researchers from the School of Architecture, Art, and Design<\/a> (EAAD, in Spanish) at Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey to analyze the connection between urban planning and the possibility of having a balanced diet through a slightly unconventional model of selling food: Mexican wet markets known as tianguis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Aleksandra Krstikj<\/a>, EAAD research professor and leader of the research group, the lack of accessibility to healthy food is linked to the increasing global trend of obesity and overweight. It is difficult to maintain an adequate physical condition when we can’t access healthy products<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don’t have many public policies or tools focused on access to fresh food,\u201d she says in an interview with TecScience<\/strong><\/em>, \u201cand if you don’t integrate it into urban planning, you can’t have a visible improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the global consensus is that diets that prevent disease and promote better health are low in processed foods, trans fats, and refined sugars, while they’re high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not everyone can have a healthy diet. Accessibility has to do with the fact that the places that sell fresh and nutritious food are close to the people who want to buy them. It also involves prices being reasonable for the income of each individual or family, known as affordability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mexico, most people who live in cities get their food from supermarkets or convenience stores, which mostly sell highly processed foods, with excess fats and refined sugars, and little nutritional value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn supermarkets, only 6% to 10% of all the products they sell are fresh food,\u201d says Krstijk. However, in the country, there is an alternative in which it is usually more likely to find fruits, vegetables, and fresh products: the tianguis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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