Local Tenn. Doctor Proposes Bill for Healthier SNAP Purchases

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According to a recent article, a 2014 study from Stanford University estimated that restricting sugary beverages from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) may help reduce type 2 diabetes and obesity among Americans receiving the SNAP benefits, keeping as many as 141,000 children and 281,000 adults from becoming obese.

Physician Phil Roe is ready to help this happen and has filed a bill that would bar SNAP recipients from using their benefits to buy sodas, energy drinks, candy and other junk foods.

After reading a letter from a mother being upset that her Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, (WIC) benefits didn’t cover her two 12 liter soda bottles of Mountain dew, Roe told local news that he doesn’t care what people buy, but stated that the food people purchase with SNAP dollars should be nutritious as it is tax payers dollars.

According to a Medical Daily article, studies have shown that 46 million Americans receive SNAP and most are children, elderly or disabled, and a USDA study from 2007 to 2010, reported that 40 percent of recipients were obese, higher than the national average.

The proposed bill will be a revised version of a bill he filed two years ago and has been assigned to the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Nutrition.

Roe told local news, “It’s a public health issue, how we eat.”

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