Food Stamps Should Not Be Used For Sodas - NYC
Font size:
New York City has reportedly planned to file a petition with the United States Department of Agriculture for permission to conduct a two-year experiment banning the 1.7 million recipients of food stamps in the city from using the benefits to purchase soda and other sugar-added beverages.
Sugary beverages have been associated in many studies with the obesity epidemic in the United States. The New York City is the front runner in requiring restaurants to list caloric information on menus and restricting use of artery-clogging trans-fat.
But policy experts suggest that the possibility for the USDA to grant such a petition is remote as the law governing the use of food stamps does not dictate that food stamps should only be used for certain foods. Only Congress can change the law.
Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and former employee of the USDA, was quoted by New York Times as saying “What you can purchase and not purchase in the food-stamp program is described in extraordinary detail by federal law.”
Robert Doar, the city’s human resources commissioner was cited as saying the city's petition should be able to be granted because the USDA has set a precedent by prohibiting sodas in the school breakfast and lunch program, which is also sponsored by the USDA.
The New York Times reported citing one study that poor households spend about 40 percent of their money for foods on items that are not recommended by government nutritionists for frequent use. Also a survey finds more than a fifth of purchases involved sweetened beverages.
Many organizations were said to endorse Mayor Michael Bloodberg's proposal. They include the Citizens’ Committee for Children and the United Way of New York City, and the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. They believe the proposed restriction on use of food stamps would help reduce obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases related to diet.
Kaushal N. at Columbia University reported that his study indicates that participation in the food stamps program was not significantly associated with body mass index even though use of food stamps was linked with a statistically insignificant 0.3 percent increase in BMI among low-educated unmarried mothers.
The findings were derived from a study of immigrant families and published in Sep 2007 in Journal of Health Economics.
Jimmy Downs
Add to:
del.icio.us |
Digg
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text
Home
Set as homepage
Add to favorites
Mobile site
Rss
Plain text
Archive