this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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SNAP bans on soda, candy and other foods take effect in five states Jan. 1 (apnews.com)
submitted 20 hours ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world
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Starting Thursday, Americans in five states who get government help paying for groceries will see new restrictions on soda, candy and other foods they can buy with those benefits.

Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia are the first of at least 18 states to enact waivers prohibiting the purchase of certain foods through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

It’s part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to urge states to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal program -- long known as food stamps -- that serves 42 million Americans.

“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a statement in December.

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[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I think that the better question is why these were allowed in the first place for a supplemental program.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Corporate lobbying, mostly. It's the reason why whole "genres" of "old" foods are covered (any milk, for example), but the "new stuff" (say probiotic shakes) are on a case-by-case basis. The level of unhealthiness in today's junk food was almost unheard of when food stamps were started and they've only managed to wriggle their way into eligibility as being grandfathered in to the program or lobbying.

If the SNAP program was put in place today, believe that only Tyson Farms chicken and Wonder bread would be allowed.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 9 minutes ago

This is a good explanation.