If your doctor told you to add more candy and soda to your diet, it might be a sign you need a new doctor.
What it doesn’t mean is that candy and soda are good for you.
If that same doctor said: “Don’t worry, the candy and soda are free as part of the food stamp program,” that doesn’t make it good for anyone—least of all the taxpayers who are paying for it.
Fortunately, America is finally making a change for the better, both for Americans’ health and for the health of our pocketbooks, in the form of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. We’re making healthier choices, not only because of blood pressure or diet or exercise, but because of good policy choices starting at the state level.
As Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. releases the MAHA commission report, state policymakers from Arkansas to Indiana to Utah, are taking up the MAHA mantle, emboldened by a federal government that is finally willing to back reformers, rather than putting up bureaucratic roadblocks.
A funny thing happened when the federal government decided to get out of the way: States began racing each other to make good choices for their citizens’ health.
On Tuesday, April 15, the governors of Arkansas, Idaho and Indiana each announced on the same day that they were submitting a waiver to the United States Department of Agriculture to ban the use of food stamps (otherwise known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) to buy candy and soft drinks, each trying to establish themselves as a national leader. West Virginia had earlier announced a plan in March to exclude soda from the SNAP program.
Since then, at least a dozen states have made their own moves to restrict the purchase of soda and other sugary or highly processed foods using food stamps, including Texas, Nebraska and Louisiana. Even blue state Colorado moved to request a SNAP waiver for candy, soda and unhealthy foods, and California’s Democratic governor has indicated he would be “open to similar restrictions.”
The facts behind this issue make it clear that reform is needed. Soda is the number one item most purchased with food stamps, and sweetened beverages and candy make up more than 11%of all food stamps spending.
Common sense in health policy isn’t a partisan issue, and all 50 states—and Washington, D.C.—should be open to following the lead of these policymakers. A recent poll found that nearly seven in ten Americans (69%) support requiring food stamps to be used to purchase nutritious foods, not junk foods like soda and candy.
That same poll found overwhelming support for other MAHA agenda items. Transparency in school lunches is backed by nearly nine in ten voters (88%) who agree that schools should provide a full list of ingredients and nutrition facts for the meals served at the school.
That transparency extends to bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., as well: An overwhelming 93% of voters say that government agencies should be required to disclose financial ties with drug companies and food manufacturers, and 87% agree that it should be illegal for all government health officials to own stock in companies they regulate.
At the state level, the MAHA movement is continuing to expand and deliver results.
More than half of the states have introduced legislation to ban or restrict artificial food dyes, and private businesses like In-N-Out Burger, Lays and Tyson Foods have moved to get ahead of the trend with proactive action. In fact, even blue states like Washington and Minnesota have invested in healthier school lunches, including unprocessed or minimally processed meals.
Making America Healthy Again is an idea that lawmakers from both parties, from the state level to Washington, D.C., should get behind. Common sense is coming back, and we’re all healthier for it.
Paige Terryberry is a Senior Research Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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