Have you heard of a food desert? No? Let me enlighten you.

Food deserts are areas where there is a lack of access to healthful food — or in some cases, any food. It might be because of a lack of stores or a lack of transportation to stores (if you can’t drive or don’t have a car and there’s no public transportation where you live, that’s going to seriously impede your ability to get to the grocery store), or a lack of healthful foods at the store.

Let me illustrate this with a story. I grew up in a tiny little town in upstate New York. My house is about a 10-minute drive from each of the two nearest grocery stores (walking is not an option, and there are no buses). One store is in a nice, relatively well-off suburb. The other is in the rural, hard-hit town I live in. The store in the suburb is well-stocked with fresh produce, a great butcher and all sorts of gorgeous prepared foods.

The store in the tiny rural town? You’d be hard-pressed to find a decent-looking bell pepper there. Did I mention that it is impossible to get there via public transportation? And that it’s located off a busy road that isn’t all that safe for pedestrians? And that the vast majority of the town isn’t within walking distance anyway?

That is a good example of a food desert. Even if the residents of my town had the resources to buy lots of fresh produce, if they also lack the transportation to get to the nicer store, they’re out of luck. If people don’t have access to the nicer store and don’t want to try new foods, they are not likely to try the dilapidated-looking fresh foods at the closer store (there are few things less appetizing to me than a withered-up bell pepper).

So what does that mean? Well, first of all, America is riddled with food deserts. There are huge pockets of this country where most residents are simply incapable of getting fresh produce. How can we whine about an obesity epidemic when a huge chunk of those who are most at risk for obesity — those in lower socio-economic strata — are also those less likely to have access to the foods required for a healthy lifestyle?

Attitudes toward food in this country need to change. People focus on the idea that being skinny is the same as being healthy. They forget to make sure everyone has access to healthful foods.

Now, I don’t pretend to be the diet police. Anyone monitoring the amount of butter I buy would probably have a heart attack simply from seeing that much cholesterol. And, frankly, I couldn’t care less what most people actually put in their mouths. I have better things to do, like catch up on last week’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” What I care about is making sure everyone has access to good, healthful food. Whether they choose to eat it is their business.

And that is where the problem lies. How many millions of people in this country don’t eat fresh fruit or vegetables because they can’t get them, either because of a food desert or because of monetary concerns? How many of those millions are obese? I think we need to stop worrying about the numbers on the scale and start trying to figure out how to get fresh produce into the homes of those who want it. We are never going to become a healthier country if we leave half of it behind.