by An urge to ban sugar-containing drinks, sweets and more from the US program that helps low-income families to pay for nutritious foods was previously tried-a thrust of new Trump management officers could soon be received.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed secretary for health and human services, and Brooke Rollins, the new agricultural secretary, both signaled that they prefer to remove such treats from SNAP, the supplemental Nutrition Assistance program.
Kennedy was the loudest and asked the government to enable the program almost 113 billion US dollars to serve around 42 million Americans in order to pay “soda or processed food”.
“The only place where I would say that we really have to change the guidelines is the Snap program and food brands and at school meals,” Kennedy told Fox News moderator Laura Ingraham last week. “In many cases, the federal government pays for this. And we shouldn’t subsidize people to eat poison. “
In one of her first interviews after she was confirmed, Rollins said that she was looking forward to working with Kennedy on this topic.
“If a taxpayer puts money in SNAP, you are okay if you use your taxpayers to feed children who may need something more nutritious, really bad food and sugar -containing drinks?” Said Rollins. “These are massive questions that we will ask and work in the coming months and years.”
Removing certain foods from SNAP – known as food brands for years – is not as easy as it sounds.
The program is carried out by the USDA, not HHS, and managed via individual states. It is approved by the Federal Food and Nutrition Act from 2008, which says that SNAP advantages can be used for “any food or food product for human consumption”, with the exception of alcohol, tobacco and hot foods, including those for those for the immediate consumption are prepared.
Without food, the congress would require the law to change the law – or that states will receive exemptions with which they would restrict purchases, said Katie Bergh, a high -ranking political analyst for the center for household and guideline priorities, a non -participating research group. In the past 20 years, legislators have proposed in several states to prevent Snap from paying water, soda, chips, ice cream, decorated cakes and “luxury meat” such as steak.
“None of these inquiries have ever been approved among republican or democratic presidents,” said Bergh.
In the past, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture rejected the exceptional regulations and said in a paper from 2007 that there are no clear standards in order to define food “as good or bad or not healthy or healthy”. In addition, the restrictions on implementation, complicated and expensive. And you may not change the recipient or reduce conditions such as obesity.
Anti-hunger supporters point to research that show that Snap recipients are not more likely than other low-income Americans to buy sugar-containing drinks or snacks. And they say that the limitation of food selection undermines autonomy and dignity by people who receive an average of around $ 187 a month or about 6.16 per day, according to the latest numbers.
“This is just another way to lower the advantages,” said Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director of the Food Research and Action Center, a non-profit interest group. “How, how do we limit people? How do we stigmatize them more? ”
The invoices are in the congress and in several countries to limit the SNAP advantages through the payment of soda, sweets and other articles.
MP Josh Breechan, a Republican from Oklahoma, sponsored the Healthy Snap Act.
“If someone wants to buy Junk Food on their own cent, it is up to him,” he said. “But we say:” Do not ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences. “
An SNAP recipient said that she uses her monthly benefit of $ 291 to buy necessities such as meat, oil, milk and coffee. Martina Santos, 66, from New York City, complements these foods with fresh vegetables and fruits from a pantry campaign against hunger, where it is also a volunteer. Since she has diabetes and other health states, she understands how important it is to use the advantages only for nutritious options.
“For me, SNAP is to be used for healthy foods to make people avoid all diseases they currently have: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure,” said Santos.
In Kansas and elsewhere, invoices underline refreshing drinks and sweets underline some of the challenges of such changes.
Several upcoming invoices try to prevent them from paying for refreshing drinks, but they would continue to allow drinks with milk, milk alternatives such as soy or almond milk or drinks with more than 50% vegetable or fruit juice. Sweets are characterized as an unpleasant, flour -free preparation of “sugar, honey or other natural or artificial sweeten in combination with chocolate, fruit, nuts or other ingredients or aromas in the form of bars, drops or pieces.
According to this definition, Kit Kat and Twix bars, which contain flour, would not prohibit. And juices that contain high amounts of sugar but are more than half fruit juice would be approved.
Such puzzles have strengthened changes to the SNAP program for decades. However, this moment could be different, said Dr. Anand Parekh, Chief Medical Officer of the cross -party Policy Center, one in Washington, DC, based thinking factory
The dynamics behind Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Novt” movement could stimulate a new focus on solutions for poor nutrition that make up leading risk factors for early illnesses and deaths.
“When we talk about the SNAP program, we have to remind people that the ‘n’ stands for nutrition,” said Parekh. “It is time for both parties to come together and see what the innovations are here to improve nutritional quality and nutrition.”
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The video journalist from Associated Press, Mary Conlon, contributed to this report.
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The Department of Health and Science from Associated Press receives support from the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is only responsible for all content.
