Stop Federal Funding Of The Sweets Driving U.S. Obesity Epidemic

A new report from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) urges states to eliminate subsidies for candy and sugary sodas which dominate the lion’s share of food stamp dollars while driving chronic disease.

The 42 million Americans who are enrolled in food stamps are spending nearly twice as much on sweetened beverages than healthy fruit with candy, sugary drinks, and desserts exceeding purchases of fruits and vegetables combined by more than $400 million a year, says the FGA report based on a 2016 government study that has not been re-run.

“Soda and candy are among the top food commodities purchased with food stamps. Our tax dollars should fund better nutrition, not fuel the obesity epidemic,” Paige Terryberry, senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, said in a statement to The Federalist. “If states and Congress cut out the junk from food stamps, they can improve the physical and fiscal health of our nation.”

The federal government spent roughly $113 billion on food stamps in fiscal year 2023 under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). According to the 2016 government study, about 20 percent of every dollar went towards sweet drinks or other junk foods such as candy, desserts, or salty snacks. Using the total expenditures from FY2023, that would amount to more than 22 billion federal dollars going to items with effectively no nutritional value.

In January, Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma reintroduced legislation to remove soft drinks, candy, ice cream, and prepared desserts from food stamp eligibility.

“If someone wants to buy junk food on their own dime, that’s up to them,” Brecheen said. “But what we’re saying is, don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences.”

Last week, California pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig explained with a pair of academic colleagues in an op-ed for The Hill how Americans pay twice to keep unhealthy items covered under SNAP.

“First, they pay for procuring the unhealthy food itself, at a rate of $23 billion annually,” they wrote. “Second, they pay for the healthcare of SNAP participants who develop nutrition-related diseases from consuming these foods, and the costs are staggering.”

The piece referenced a 2021 report from The Rockefeller Foundation which “found that diet-related diseases cost the U.S. $1.1 trillion annually, amounting to 25 percent of total health expenditures.” Medicaid, meanwhile, “cost $606 billion in 2023 — about 10 percent of the federal budget.”

“Besides providing no nutritional value, the regular consumption of sugary drinks produces health outcomes similar to alcohol, including liver disease, obesity, high blood pressure and other cardiometabolic diseases,” Lustig and his colleagues added.

Both Brecheen in 2023 and The Hill article this week noted how, according to the USDA, taxpayers are projected to deliver more than $240 billion to the junk food industry over the next decade and $60 billion to soda alone.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 90 percent of all healthcare spending in the United States goes toward dealing with chronic disease and mental health issues. More than 40 percent of U.S. adults are categorically obese, which raises the risk of nearly every chronic illness. The CDC reports 6 in 10 Americans already suffer one chronic condition, and 4 in 10 suffer at least two.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the administration’s crusade on the nation’s health complained about the incumbent food stamp program driving obesity and chronic illness in a Senate confirmation hearing last week.

“We shouldn’t be spending 10 percent of the SNAP program on sugared drinks,” he told the Senate Finance Committee.

Kennedy, however, was nominated for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), not the USDA, where SNAP is managed. The Agriculture Department will likely be run by former White House staffer Brooke Rollins, who lawmakers unanimously advanced out of committee on Monday. Kennedy’s team pushed for Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky for the top job, but Trump’s alternative pick, according to Politico, illustrated the “potential limits of Kennedy’s power to pursue his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda in a Trump administration attuned to the concerns of industry.”

Another hire at the USDA last month also rattled Kennedy allies in the administration when the department announced a former seed oil lobbyist would serve as agency chief of staff. A source close to Kennedy told The Federalist the pick was a “slap in the face to the MAHA movement.”

Big Soda has meanwhile deployed high-powered Washington lobbyists to thwart Kennedy’s agenda which targets industry subsidies embedded in government food stamps.

“Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr. Pepper are mobilizing to stop him,” the Wall Street Journal reported in December. “Lobbyists for Coke and its biggest rivals are pressing their case on Capitol Hill, highlighting the fact that the soda companies are selling more zero-sugar drinks. These, combined with clear calorie labels on beverages, allow consumers to make healthier choices, they say.”

Dr. Lustig countered the industry’s argument that artificial sweeteners are healthier in his 2021 book, Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine:

Recent studies argue that artificially sweetened beverages are associated with diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and dementia. Thus far, all of these studies have been correlative — we don’t yet have causation. Nonetheless, quantitatively, the data suggests that the toxicity of two diet sodas is equivalent to one sugared soda, and that they’re now way worse than water in terms of obesity and diabetes development.

According to the FGA report, the American Beverage Association made $6 billion from food stamps in 2016.

“Their tenacious corporate lobbying efforts to stop restrictions on food stamps have been so successful that efforts to study the impact of sugar-sweetened beverage restrictions have been shut down even at the pilot level,” the report reads. “Junk food corporations lobby aggressively to keep soda and candy on the approved list.”

While the federal government administers the SNAP program, states determine eligibility and benefits at the local level.

“The American people elected Donald Trump, in part, because of his commitment to work with people like RFK, Jr. to Make America Health Again,” said Terryberry, the author of the FGA report. “If the administration is serious about making good on the MAHA promise, that starts with ending taxpayer-funded junk food.”

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of “Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).” He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here. Buy “Fat and Unhappy” here.