CSPI, American Heart Association Urge USDA to Authorize Healthy Food Stamp Trials

WASHINGTONA Yale University study last year found that Americans spend at least $2 billion on food stamps to purchase sugar-sweetened beverages at grocery stores.

Some nutrition advocacy groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) are in favor of the government eliminating junk food purchases with government subsidies.

In a letter submitted today to Tom Vilsackthe top official of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)a number of nutrition organizations and experts urged the agency to permit states to conduct pilot programs that are tailored to promote healthier food choices under the nearly $80 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The letter was signed by 54 national and local health groups and 19 physicians and nutritional experts, CSPI noted. Some of the groups included the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Heart Association and American Medical Association.

"Such pilot programs would provide the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Congress with data needed to make an informed decision concerning ways to improve the nutritional qualities of purchases through the SNAP program," the letter states.

In the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013, Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), M.D., had proposed an amendment that would have restricted unhealthy food purchases under two pilot SNAP projects that USDA would be required to carry out. But the Senate never took up the amendment.

"Most Americans' diets, including the diets of low-income folks served by SNAP, are overflowing with soft drinks and woefully deficient in whole grains and produce," Michael Jacobson, executive director of CSPI, said in a statement. "In the same way that SNAP funds are not allowed to be spent on tobacco or alcohol, the government should not pour potentially health-saving SNAP dollars into the coffers of Coke and Pepsi."