In addition to schools encouraging children and teenagers to drink diabetes and obesity-causing sodas, our tax dollars every day encourage poor people to eat and drink their way to ill health… and death.
Sodas and junk food are highly consumed items by over 40 million low-income Americans, with over $70 billion in benefits each year from the billion-dollar Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
In 2016, a USDA study of SNAP shoppers found that “sweetened beverages,” “prepared desserts,” “salty snacks,” “candy,” and “sugar” accounted for 22.6 percent of the purchases. Yet, to date, there is no major push by Congress or federal health authorities to establish incentives nationwide for recipients to buy healthy foods.
More SNAP, More Weight
A CDC study shows that on average, people with low incomes are more obese than people with high incomes.
Therefore, it is not a question of not having enough food – it’s from eating junk food.
A paper published in 2018 by researchers at Harvard, Wellesley, and Tufts concluded, “Low-income American adults now consume nearly two [sugar-sweetened beverage] servings a day, and for every one to two daily servings consumed, the lifetime risk of developing diabetes increases by 30 percent.”
The proof is in the data: according to the CDC, from 1999-2000 through 2017–2018, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5 percent to 42.4 percent, and the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7 percent to 9.2 percent.
TRENDPOST: The line given by the soda and junk food industries paying off politicians (i.e. campaign contributions) to allow SNAP beneficiaries to spend tax payer money buying junk food is that by controlling what they can and cannot buy is an infringement on the recipients’ freedoms to choose what they want to eat… and it hurts their feelings.
As the economy crashes, more people will be going on food stamps. Another plank of a new third party in the U.S. will be to ensure SNAP recipients are prohibited from buying junk food.
