Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - Ban sugar drink purchased with food stamps

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Plan9 (Post 2828932)

If food stamps could get people off their couch for half an hour a day, that'd be the win.

Build a 60 storey building with no publicly accessible elevator and put the office that distributes food stamps on the 60th floor. See? forced exercise!

---------- Post added at 04:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:26 PM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by aceventura3 (Post 2828960)

The key, it that these drinks are relatively inexpensive compared to the alternatives. If the price of orange juice was the same as Coke - the consumption of orange juice would exceed that of Coke for people on food stamps.

I know this sounds like a crazy idea, but what about drinking water? Why do people need to drink something sweet in the first place. I can get pretty good tasting water out of my tap for next to nothing...

---------- Post added at 05:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 PM ----------

This is only a what if scenario for me, as I don't think Australia has a food stamp system. People eligible for assistance in Oz get cash in their bank account with little or no strings attached.

I think there is a huge argument in favour of limiting what people spend 'food stamps' on. If they don't know how to prepare these raw ingredients, perhaps there should be government provided cooking tuition.

I think the problem is much wider than this. This is too myopic: a mayor banning a single food product to a distinct set of people.

The problem is with the food system itself. Junk food is often cheaper than healthful food, and that's because to a large extent the taxpayers help pay for it.

I think I have the craziest idea of all: how about we stop subsidizing for cheap meat, dairy, and corn, and start subsidizing for cheap organic fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains?

Am I fucking crazy or what? Somebody stop me!

Article

Quote:

PoliticalNews.me - Oct 18,2010 - New York City – With more than 41 million Americans using food stamps to meet their nutrition needs and nearly 30% of Americans suffering from obesity, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens and Brooklyn) announced new legislation that would give a 50% discount to food stamp recipients who purchase fresh produce.

Under Wiener’s legislation Food stamp recipients would receive a half off discount on fresh food purchased with their EBT Card (Electronic Benefits Transfer). The food stamp program pays the full price for the food, but the food stamp recipient would have 50% of the cost deducted from their food stamp EBT Card. In total the bill would cost an additional $2.6 billion or roughly 3.8% of the overall costs of the food stamp program in 2009.

With approximately 72.5 million adults considered overweight, obesity is a nationwide epidemic, and it is a factor that contributes to several leading causes of death including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Unfortunately obesity rates continue to climb. Over 60 percent of New Yorkers are overweight or obese, a number that is up from 42% in 1997.

The obesity epidemic is a problem that disproportionately affects lower income and less educated Americans. Many lower income Americans are forced to choose unhealthy diet options, because fresh food and produce can be more expensive than the alternative. According to the USDA food calculator, a family of four in New York needs $8,560 for food, but the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) only provides $8,016. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO,) studies have shown that a discount on fresh food would incentivize food stamp recipients to make healthier choices when purchasing food.

Recent estimates suggest that the annual medical costs of obesity are as high as $147 billion in the United States. On average, persons who are obese have medical costs that are $1,429 more than persons of normal weight. According to the NIH, American life expectance will drop by as much as 5 years unless aggressive efforts are made to slow rising rates of obesity.

“We know Americans will make healthy food decisions when they have the means to do so,” said Rep. Weiner. “This program will help curb obesity, cut health costs and provided much needed financial relief to 41 million Americans

Anthony Wiener has come up with a unique idea which is to basically allow food stamp users to buy produce at 50% off. Basically it will charge their food stamp card 50% the price, and they will buy the government for the rest of the money separate. Making healthy food more affordable.

While this is potentially viable, it obviously will increase our costs, does nothing about how we subsidize farms already, and does not account for the abuse that it may have.

When I worked in an insurance company that dealt with Medicare, one of the biggest fraud scams in pharmaceutical stores that sell food is people would purchase food, with a prescription. Basically if the store would get $50 for a prescription of Viagra, they would bill insurance for that amount, and you go buy anything you want in the store for $50. The pills then can be sold if they want to order them on the streets. This has the same method, what is to stop a store from doing similar just ringing up prime rib as tomato, lettuce and cucumbers. The store gets more money, the buyer gets more food.

By the way that scam is rampant in very poor neighborhoods, a good friend of mine is a director that deals in Medicare fraud, and he still says it is one of the top 3 fraud methods, even with them knowing about it and trying to catch them.

On a positive note at least they are trying to come up with alternative solutions to entice people to be able to eat healthy and make it financially feasible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plan9 (Post 2828932)

Don't fuck with my diet sodas.

...

Baraka,

Sugared soft drinks are, of course, only a small part of the obesity problem in America.

If food stamps could get people off their couch for half an hour a day, that'd be the win.

If food stamps could change serving sizes and the Super Ultra Big Gulp culture, that'd be the win.

Input is only a small part of the problem. You can't feed someone into fitness.

(I mean, you could... but... that'd be a really broken program; one that dispenses only beans)

what if the only way they were able to get food stamps was by running a certain distance on a treadmill?