Comments on: SNAP Out of Junk Food https://anh-usa.org/snap-out-of-junk-food/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=snap-out-of-junk-food ANH Protects Free Speech About Natural Health Modalities, Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy, Homeopathy and Access To Natural Therapies. Wed, 21 Aug 2024 18:26:14 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ken B https://anh-usa.org/snap-out-of-junk-food/#comment-57760 Fri, 02 Aug 2024 14:39:26 +0000 https://anh-usa.org/?p=83657#comment-57760 I am a little surprised by your article on restricting SNAP-eligible food purchases. Your articles posted on ANH’s website generally advocate a libertarian approach to health and wellness, i.e., let each individual choose his or her own options for achieving health and wellness. Yet here you are supporting restrictions on what foods SNAP beneficiaries can buy with their EBT cards. Sure, the categories of food proposed for restriction are typically less healthy. The unspoken assumption is that SNAP recipients are not only poor but also lazy and stupid, that they need the wise and benevolent guidance of experts and other authorities who know what’s best for them. This top-down approach is very similar to what is going on with the WHO and Covid. ANH opposes the heavy-handed approach of the WHO, but seems ok with the heavy-handiness with respect to SNAP. Milton Friedman and other laissez-faire economists argue that it is better to give cash to poor and needy folk, letting them decide how best to spend it, than to subject them to a variety of government programs, each with its own narrow target of services, and which deprive these folk of their dignity.

Approval of these restrictions on SNAP is the first step down a slippery slope. Since both SNAP and Medicaid are federal programs administered by the states, they could share info. For example, Medicaid could decide not to pay for a member’s implanted arterial stent because that member has a history of using SNAP to buy too much fatty food.

ANH also has opposed recent proposals by the FDA to restrict further the amounts of sugar, fat, and sodium in processed foods and how those foods are labeled, yet you want to nitpick SNAP beneficiaries about their access to such foods. In this case, ANH may be overreaching.

]]> By: Linda Ross https://anh-usa.org/snap-out-of-junk-food/#comment-57520 Thu, 01 Aug 2024 23:09:48 +0000 https://anh-usa.org/?p=83657#comment-57520 HEALTH IN SNAP 2024 – I’m struggling with this one. We’re targeting one group of people to combat such an epidemic? These junk foods are available to EVERYONE and we all are guilty of spending our money for it, so shouldn’t we all have some accountability and not just the people that get SNAP assistance? What about the process that makes it so readily available- the companies that manufacture it, the entire system that makes sure the shelves are full of it? No accountability for any of them? Does this group represent the MAJORITY of people with chronic diseases and obesity? Shame on us!

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