3:22 p.m. CDT, August 10, 2012
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite hopes that the U.S. Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can steer people toward healthier
eating choices, there's no evidence the program currently influences -
for better or worse - how many sugary drinks kids consume, according to a
new study.
When children from families participating in the federal assistance program for poor families, commonly known as food stamps, were compared to peers not in SNAP, there was no significant difference in how much milk, soda and fruit juice the kids drank.
When children from families participating in the federal assistance program for poor families, commonly known as food stamps, were compared to peers not in SNAP, there was no significant difference in how much milk, soda and fruit juice the kids drank.
The findings don't mean that banning the use of food stamps to buy
sweetened beverages, as some have proposed, wouldn't cut down on their
consumption.
But the results do suggest at least that having food stamps doesn't
encourage families with kids to buy more unhealthy drinks, according to
the report in the August issue of the Journal of the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics.
In short, "SNAP does not affect beverage consumption among low-income
children," said Meenakshi Fernandes, the study's author and a senior
analyst at the health and policy research organization Abt Associates in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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