Soda Drinks Shouldn’t Be Purchased With Food Stamps

Sugary Drinks Shouldn’t Be Purchased With Food Stamps

A new congressional commission wants to ban people who use Food Stamps from buying soda and any other sugary drinks with their benefits according to Forbes reports:

Public health advocates have long criticized the $70 billion SNAP program for allowing participants to purchase non-nutritious sugary drinks with their benefits. A 2014 study by Stanford University medical researchers found that a SNAP ban on sugary drink purchases would prevent at least 141,000 children and 281,000 adults from becoming obese and, 240,000 adults from developing type 2 diabetes.

Sugary drink purchases are popular with SNAP participants. A 2012 study by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that SNAP pays at least $2 billion annually for sugar-sweetened beverages bought in grocery stores alone.

The policy recommendation, released on Monday, was one of 20 made in a 96-page report from the National Commission on Hunger. Congress created the commission in 2014 to provide policy recommendations “to combat domestic hunger and food insecurity.”

The commission’s report also states that “SNAP benefits should help families meet their nutritional needs, not contribute to negative health outcomes through poor nutrition choices.” It refers to “scientific evidence (that) suggests that the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, which are unhealthy, can have profound and serious negative effects on health, such as obesity and diabetes, especially among children.”