SOUTHERN MARYLAND - Joseph Langley??s convenience store, Joe??s Grocery and Liquor, has been offering healthy alternatives of his customers?? favorite snacks for a few months ?" with mixed results.

Langley told SoMdNews.com that a few customers have made healthier choices after a taste comparison ?" but not many. He??s been selling more half-gallons of 1 percent milk versus whole milk, "But the low-fat cheese hasn??t sold at all," he said, adding, "Everybody down here likes their fat."

Langley is one of four store operators in Charles County who is taking part in the Maryland Healthy Stores program, a partnership between the state of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that began in 2005. The participating stores host taste-tests and stock their shelves with previously unavailable products, such as low-fat foods and drinks, nuts, berries and other healthier options, Megan Rowan, a senior research coordinator, told the news source.

"Our idea is that if you catch people at the point of purchase, at the point of decision-making, it??s a better time to get them to try something new," Joel Gittelson, a professor at the Hopkins?? Center for Human Nutrition, told the news source. He also suggested that making healthy foods and drinks available improves the likelihood that people will purchase them, although data is not available to support this notion.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has applied for a $4.1 million community transformation grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Audrey Regan, director of the office of chronic disease prevention. The funds would be used to expand existing efforts, including a worksite-wellness program that the state launched in May 2010, in which about 130 businesses employing 175,000 workers are participating.

Regan commented that community-based programs ?" rather than large-scale actions ?" are the best way to control the obesity epidemic.

"But I don??t think there??s one silver bullet," state Sen. Paul G. Pinsky told the news source, adding, "It??s going to take a culture shift in the state and in the country."