The food stamp program needs to go on a healthy diet. The government currently provides massive subsidies to companies that produce unhealthy foods, and then provides incentives for food stamp recipients to put these same unhealthy foods in their grocery carts.
As a health and wellness expert and a mother, I’m teaming up with the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to propose a plan to get the nation’s food policies in shape.
The original purpose of food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was to fight hunger. But today, the main nutrition issue in low-income neighborhoods is not hunger — it’s the double burden of both malnutrition and obesity. The processed foods readily available on almost every corner in low-income neighborhoods are packed with fat and calories, but deficient in crucial vitamins and minerals.
One out of seven Americans receives SNAP. These individuals are less likely to have health insurance and are twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Food policies should work to bridge this clear gap between the health and nutrition of low-income individuals and middle- to high-income groups. But instead, they perpetuate the disparities. The Farm Bill, which is up for renewal, needs to include language that will encourage corner stores in food deserts to swap beef jerky and Red Bull for high-nutrient fare such as frozen peas, fresh apples, black beans, and oatmeal.
Under current rules, SNAP retailers are paid dollar-for-dollar for purchases of energy drinks, potato chips, and processed meat. Stores have no incentive to stock shelves with healthful items.
If SNAP focused solely on simple basics like fresh fruits and vegetables, it would quickly help Americans trim their own waistlines and help fight health disparities in low-income neighborhoods. We would see huge cost savings short term, and even bigger savings in reduced health care spending down the road. Unhealthy diets high in meat, cheese, processed foods, and sugar put people on track to develop type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other costly diseases.
SNAP recipients would still be able to purchase candy and soda, but they would have to use their own money. SNAP is meant to be supplemental to an individual’s own income. Refocusing SNAP on healthful foods would actually give recipients more freedom as their local stores would end up carrying the foods they need to follow a healthful, varied diet.
It’s time to re-energize SNAP to help recipients lower their chances of developing these diseases. SNAP recipients deserve access to proper nutrition. They don’t deserve to be fed the cheapest calories that set them up for bad health.
Corner stores that are now filled floor to ceiling with beer, sugary cereal, and canned meat could just as easily fill their shelves with healthful foods if they had the necessary support from federal food policies. Store owners don’t want to hurt their neighbors’ health — they’re just trying to make a living and stock what sells. If food stamp recipients are encouraged to buy brown rice and bananas, that is what they’ll stock. Imagine neon lights advertising fresh produce instead of super-sized drinks.
Diets rich in these simple healthy basics — fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes — not only provides necessary nutrients, it can also help people shed pounds, reverse diabetes and heart disease, and even fight cancer.
Cutting junk food from SNAP and slashing subsidies for unhealthful foods would trim the nation’s budget — and Americans’ waistlines.
Jillian Michaels is a health and wellness expert, best-selling author, television personality and a member of the vegan organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.