Rural America's working-age adults die at wildly higher rates than their counterparts in cities. Why?

[hunter]

44. I notice the food first when I visit family in "rural America."

I live in California and there are dozens of ethnic restaurants and food markets within two miles of my house. The supermarket nearest our home stocks a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Maybe forty percent of my neighbors are immigrants and the children of immigrants, from all over the world, so the supermarkets sell foods that are familiar to them. Even our WalMart has a decent produce selection.

I do most of the cooking in our house and spend a lot of time in the kitchen at family gatherings. When I'm visiting rural U.S.A. I hardly know what to cook, the ingredients for half my "go to" recopies are simply unavailable. My wife is a vegetarian-approaching-vegan and servers in rural restaurants and cafes will sometimes look at her like she's an alien.

I think a lot of people in rural U.S.A. are simply malnourished. Certain urban areas are also "food deserts."