Will the White House Take the American Diet Crisis Seriously?
In 1969, low-income Americans faced uniquely high levels of hunger, prompting President Richard Nixon to bring together a group of experts and policymakers for a White House Conference to “put an end to hunger in America for all time.” Flash forward 50 years, and Americans face a new set of food-related health challenges — obesity, poor nutrition, and diet-related disease.
Recognizing the gravity of our present-day situation, President Joe Biden is convening his own White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health at the end of September — this time with the joint aim of “end[ing] hunger and increas[ing] healthy eating and physical activity.” While the federal government has already given much attention to addressing hunger, the question is whether the White House will use the conference to prioritize the problem of poor nutrition and diet-related disease.
Instead of falling back on politically expedient proposals to expand programs, the White House should consider reforming federal programs to improve nutrition and health.
Several weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data documenting a drastic decline in life expectancy for Americans for the second consecutive year. Although many are pointing to COVID-19 as a main reason for the decline, the CDC warns that obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure substantially increase an individual’s chances of experiencing severe COVID-19 symptoms and death. All of these comorbidities are consequences of poor nutrition and have worsened the effects of COVID-19.
Even before the pandemic, at least half a million Americans died prematurely each year due to diseases caused by obesity and poor nutrition — a problem that disproportionately affects low-income Americans. Despite consistent warnings from health experts about the harmful effects of poor nutrition, the federal government has been slow to act. And when it comes to its own food policies and nutrition assistance programs for low-income families, the federal government has likely made the problem worse.
Chief among these misguided policies is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a food assistance program that provides low-income families with a monthly benefit to purchase food items at grocery stores. Though SNAP is a vital income support — helping to alleviate hunger and food insecurity for many households — it has likely aggravated the health problems of millions of low-income Americans.
Although diet quality issues are not unique to SNAP participants, a large body of research shows that SNAP recipients have especially poor nutrition, even when compared to non-recipients with similar incomes. SNAP households also spend greater shares of their food expenditures on unhealthy products compared to non-SNAP households. A widely referenced study published by the USDA in 2016 found that SNAP recipients spend nearly a quarter of their expenditures on sugary beverages, frozen prepared foods, and prepared desserts — all of which are linked to higher risk of heart disease and obesity.
Many advocates claim that raising SNAP’s benefit levels (already increasing to a maximum of $740 per month for a 3-person household on October 1) would address diet quality problems by allowing low-income families to afford foods that are more nutritious. In reality, however, increasing benefits will likely only exacerbate the myriad health problems plaguing SNAP recipients. For example, recent research shows that closing the spending gap on groceries between high-and-low income households will have little effect on diet quality.
The federal government can help solve these problems if it is willing to embrace a national strategy to reduce diet-related disease. However, it must first tackle the uncomfortable truth that our federal nutrition assistance programs are contributing to poor nutrition, and resist calls to expand these programs until it addresses the problem adequately. Fortunately, good ideas already exist, coming in recent years from the National Commission on Hunger, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s SNAP Taskforce, and most recently, the 50th Anniversary of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health. Each of these efforts have produced reports offering a plethora of policy recommendations to improve nutrition and reduce diet-related disease. Ideas include promoting self-sufficiency through SNAP, incorporating nutritional standards into SNAP similar to the school lunch program, reducing marketing of unhealthy products, improving product placement in grocery stores, and making it easier for physicians to prescribe food to treat disease.
Questions remain over whether the White House Conference will confront the uncomfortable truths about American diets and propose policies that can realistically reduce diet-related disease. The long-term health and prosperity of the country depends on the answers.
Angela Rachidi is a Senior Fellow in Poverty Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She served as deputy commissioner for policy research for the New York City Department of Social Services from 2007-2015, overseeing SNAP research. She was also a member of the Bipartisan Policy Centers 2019 SNAP Taskforce.
