That's a better question: does dropping a cheap ethnic produce market into a neighbourhood that didn't have any cheap produce nearby before improve health outcomes?

Eating habits are cultural. People used to eating mostly cereal and bread throughout the day aren't suddenly going to start vegetables because vegetables drop in price and become more readily available and appealing for consumption. Humans are creatures of habit and social momentum.

If you want a good laugh, read this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nutrition/comments/60vk7j/need_advi...

What if in their neighborhood there are new restaurants with cheap, plant-based foods too? And if packaged food with refined sugars (cereals) and unhealthy oils got more expensive at the same time?

Humans can change their diets. It would help to be subsidizing healthy foods instead of refined sugars.

I laughed. Eating habits are stable in adulthood. I've known exactly one person to change theirs for more than a couple years.

And don't let the "Whole Foods" name fool you either, lots of food there isn't healthy at all.

hey, I get all my organic ice cream and craft spirits from there.

You can buy junk food from almost any market, but WF is great because you can assume that everything they have is of reasonable quality, that their meat + fish is reasonably more sustainable / quality-controlled than elsewhere, that their produce is reasonably fresh, etc. It's more about saving time from not having to research every apple farm and figure out their distribution networks when I just want an apple. Also, their return policy is super generous ("I bought this brand and I actually don't like it" = money back), their lines move quickly (sometimes Safeway is a 30min wait), they're rarely sold out of things, and they have some higher-end products which are hard to find elsewhere (I like some fancy cheeses and cured meats). They have some of the same stuff at other places, sometimes for less money, but it's never more convenient or a one-stop-shop.

This is a new one

I was being somewhat hyperbolic. Obviously there are any number of fairly inexpensive ethnic markets that carry fresh produce and meat in many cities.

(I actually think that Whole Foods is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to pricing but it's certainly not inexpensive even for a selective shopper.)

You can find deals in WFs. Just have to do some exploring.

I wish we had more New Leaf markets around, but it's kind of a local Santa Cruz-area thing.