New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appealed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month requesting support for a new initiative that prohibits the use of food stamps for purchasing beverages with added sugar. The proposed two-year ban is supported by Gov. David Paterson and many public health analysts. Opponents of the ban criticize how it may add to the stigma associated with New York's poorest residents, yet supporters cite the food stamp program's existing prohibition of cigarette, alcohol and prepared food purchases as a precedent. The American Beverage Association criticized the initiative's singular exclusion of sugared beverages, noting that calories from soft drinks are no more harmful than excess sugar from any other source.
Nevertheless, children who consume one soda or sugared beverage per day are 60 percent more likely to be obese than their peers who do not. Such a statistic can be particularly meaningful for New York's lower-income residents, who are more likely than others to consume at least one sweetened beverage per day. As a group, these residents must cope with type II diabetes twice as often as the wealthier population. If the initiative achieves its desired goals, it may not only reserve a higher proportion of food stamp funds for nutritious purchases but could also help defray the cost of obesity-related disease treatment, which cost New York state residents $8 billion last year. Regardless, although supporters of the ban have accused corporate lobbyists of swaying legislative opinion away from public interest, anecdotal evidence suggests that most beneficiaries of the food stamp program oppose it as well.
-compiled by Joshua McNamara
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