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Obesity experts also stressed that measures to improve the food environment were important — they can't happen just in a vacuum. What's needed, said, Gwen Flynn, director of community health and education at Community Health Councils in Los Angeles, is "a comprehensive plan to change what people are eating," including community education and government and private subsidies for healthful foods.
Some programs already exist, such as SNAP-Ed and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provide nutrition education to families eligible for food stamps. Programs teaching low-income families how to grow vegetables also are on the uptick.
Hmmm....so if we limit food stamps to healthy foods (realizing there is a cost to this in a food desert situation) and expand already existing education efforts, we could be doing something positive for obesity and resulting public health problerms.
There's food you can eliminate rather than try to define what's healthy.
Energy drinks, candy, soda, holiday baskets, snack foods. Let them buy that on their own dime like the poor working class that can't get food stamps because they make $1 more than those that do.
Easier to eliminate the junk food that does nothing to keep you from starving to death.
Red Bull and a bag of chips at the gas station is not what the Food Stamp program was envisioned for but that is what it is today folks.
Too much money to be made now in food stamps. Going electronic got the big banks involved and once that happened they have the power to sway.
JPMorgan makes over $5 billion profit per year alone in just food stamps processing.
Fast food is allowed in states due to "disabled and homeless have no kitchens" and that is becoming more prevalent across the US as more states allow foodstamps to be used for fast food.
You don't need a job now to get food stamps. The government went on a big advertising tour to educate both Americans and Mexicans about food stamp eligibility (yes they ran ads on the food stamp program in Mexico).
All it takes is a nutrition label to qualify...Red Bull and Monster energy drinks qualify.
The USDA refuses to release any statistics on food stamp usage. That should tell you right there that they don't want us to know where this money is going and what is being purchased with it.
Red Bull does, but Monster does not; Monster has a Supplement Facts label, so it is not considered food. I do not know why Red Bull has a Nutrition Facts label, but it does.
Out of curiosity, how many homeless people do you know that have kitchens? And what better suggestion do you have to help keep them from starving? Soup kitchens already exist, and are apparently not filling the need, perhaps partly due to the NIMBY syndrome.
Last edited by Emeraldmaiden; 01-02-2013 at 09:47 AM..
Reason: typo
Obesity experts also stressed that measures to improve the food environment were important — they can't happen just in a vacuum. What's needed, said, Gwen Flynn, director of community health and education at Community Health Councils in Los Angeles, is "a comprehensive plan to change what people are eating," including community education and government and private subsidies for healthful foods.
Some programs already exist, such as SNAP-Ed and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provide nutrition education to families eligible for food stamps. Programs teaching low-income families how to grow vegetables also are on the uptick.
Hmmm....so if we limit food stamps to healthy foods (realizing there is a cost to this in a food desert situation) and expand already existing education efforts, we could be doing something positive for obesity and resulting public health problerms.
Maybe we need more advertising for fresh fruits and vegetables and less for burgers, fries, pizza, etc. Advertising is out there for a reason - it works. I'd have to look it up, but I seem to recall studies about people's biological reactions to food advertisements.
Red Bull does, but Monster does not; Monster has a Supplement Facts label, so it is not considered food. I do not know why Red Bull has a Nutrition Facts label, but it does.
Out of curiosity, how many homeless people do you know that have kitchens? And what better suggestion do you have to help keep them from starving? Soup kitchens already exist, and are apparently not filling the need, perhaps partly due to the NIMBY syndrome.
Don't jump all over me about that. That is the reason the FF places are being allowed to use food stamps.
How do these FF places insure that it's only the homeless and disabled using them ? Do they prevent the able bodied family of 4 from using them for a night out at McDonald's ?
FWIW I'm all for just giving them this monthly allowance with no restrictions.
Let them buy whatever the hell they want with the money.
It's a monthly allowance from Uncle Sam.
We already feed the kids breakfast, lunch and dinner in school and over the holidays and during the summer so let that SNAP money just be "fun money" to spend however they want. That's $700/month for a family of 4 in Texas.
My son has plenty of friends on food stamps now..it's the norm for college students. And I have half a mind to tell him to get on that bandwagon himself because his friends are all getting $200 month for food while he works extra hours and budgets to shop for his food.
but I seem to recall studies about people's biological reactions to food advertisements.
....more than just advertising, but perhaps also in the way processed food is forumalted. I read this book back in 2010, and it was an eye-opener http://theendofovereating.com/]The end of overeating[/url]
....which has some big implications. We are drifting a bit off topic. but there is a problem, and it's not just with SNAP recipients.
And do you really think that the companies who produce those processed foods will just quietly stand by and not resist such a "ban"? Why do you guys think that there are not politicians who get campaign contributions from such companies? That's not pretty, but it's got to be true.
And do you really think we need more bureaucracy and more micromanagement of the program......can we afford it? Wouldn't it be better that that money be used by people who qualify for food stamps to buy FOOD?
I'm wondering, have there been any studies which show that people who use food stamps are indeed less healthy than the general population because of their food choices? Of course the "poor" are less healthy than those in our country who have been able to afford health insurance.....but that's another story.
No, but that is the problem with most good ideas. That is why we need a Constitutional amendment that says corporations are not people, and we also need publically financed campaigns.
We already feed the kids breakfast, lunch and dinner in school and over the holidays and during the summer so let that SNAP money just be "fun money" to spend however they want. That's $700/month for a family of 4 in Texas.
My son has plenty of friends on food stamps now..it's the norm for college students.
I know about the breakfast and lunch programs but not the dinner.
BTW, I think eligibility is partially based on famliy size, so if you have a big family (as in a lot of kids) and have wheat wed think is an acceptable income, you would still qualify for these programs.
Interesting to see how much of the country is on the dole. Food Stamps have been one of the fastest growing subsidy programs over the past 15 years or so...and its not just for the unemployed. The working poor or near poor are also eligible.
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