Soda Industry Cashes In on Govt. Food Assistance Programs to Tune of $4 Bilion a Year

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/food/soda-industry-cashes-govt-food-assistance-programs-tune-4-bilion-year



***SNIP


A sweet deal for Big Soda

Calls for an end to the soft-drink subsidy are coming from academia as well as from statehouses. A 2011 commentary last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association argued,

The government purchases millions of servings of sugar-sweetened beverages for SNAP participants each day. This practice arguably erodes diet quality and promotes chronic illness among individuals who are at increased risk of obesity-related disease because of limited financial resources.

Around the same time, a white paper from the Arizona State School of Nutrition and Health Promotion included this statement:

Restricting options for purchase of unhealthy foods can be a powerful strategy for improving diets of SNAP recipients. There is strong scientific evidence for a restrictive strategy, and there is precedence from other federal programs such as WIC [the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and NSLP [the National School Lunch Program], which limit benefits to the purchase of foods that are considered healthy.

[cali]

1. I have a certain reluctance to endorsing plans which tell

food stamp recipients what to eat and not eat- for several reasons.

One is that food stamp allowances hardly subsidize healthy eating. Yes, one can do it. I do, but I don't have children to feed and I'm an excellent cook who knows a lot about nutrition. I eat a lot of brown rice and beans, potatoes and other root vegetables. I don't purchase prepared foods and very few frozen foods. I have the time to shop strategically, but I still can't afford a lot of healthy options.

Another reason is that it's demeaning enough to be on food stamps without being told what you can purchase.

I'd like to see more education and cooking classes made available for food stamp recipients as well as increases in subsidies.

Not that any of that will happen.

[diabeticman]

2. I think that's a little too much government control.