We are Funding Our Children’s Disease and Doctor Visits With SNAP

A generation ago, it was rare for a physician to treat a case of childhood diabetes. Today, 30% of teens have pre-diabetes. 

In the 1960’s, the childhood obesity rate was under 5% – today, more than 20% of children are clinically obese and according to the CDC, the greatest increase in Type 2 diabetes among children was seen in Black, Hispanic, and minority youth.

These unhealthy trends will cost the US government trillions in future healthcare expenses, but – most importantly – these trends are decimating our most treasured resource: the brains, bodies, and lives of our children. Patients with obesity experience double the average medical costs of normal-weight Americans, and obese individuals have a 50 to 100% increased risk of premature death compared to individuals with a healthy weight. But what many don’t realize is that the rates of these unhealthy trends are going up at the exact time we are spending trillions of dollars to “treat them.”

It’s no secret what is contributing to these trends: unhealthy desserts, snacks, and sugary beverages. According to a recent study, 184,000 worldwide deaths yearly could be attributable to obesity from sugar-added beverages alone. These drinks, especially in excess, are detrimental to our metabolic health – and many studies tie them to increased rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. 

Shockingly, soft drinks are not only allowed on SNAP – but they are also the #1 item purchased. In total, 10% of all SNAP funding goes to sugary drinks. This amounts to a direct government transfer of more than $10 billion dollars to fund what is likely making Americans unhealthy. Our government funds many wasteful projects – but this takes the cake – no pun intended! 

For lower-income Americans, SNAP is our county’s chief “nutrition” program, but with the current levels of government-subsidized junk food, the program really shouldn't have “nutrition” in its name. Today, much of our nutrition debate focuses on the health inequality of lower-income and minority Americans, while glossing over the root cause of the disparity—unhealthy government-funded food. SNAP is re-authorized every five years in the Farm Bill, and this year as the Farm Bill comes up for debate, the question every lawmaker should be asked is a thought provoking, bipartisan, and moral one: Should our government use taxpayer dollars to fund unhealthy food that is likely increasing the chronic disease and doctors’ visits of our children?

In previous Farm Bill debates, the soda industry has pulled out all the stops to maintain billions of government dollars going to sugary drinks. These soda companies have paid Civil Rights groups such as the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation and argued that curbs on soda are even racist. In recent years, soda companies have also funneled money to dozens of public health groups to confuse the impacts of sugary drinks on health. When the Farm Bill was debated in 2013, soda companies spent $16.2 million lobbying on the SNAP issue alone. 

The newest Farm Bill is being finalized in the Agriculture Committee now, and the industry is using every tactic in the toolkit to ensure government funding flows to sugary drinks – and right now, it is working. If funding non-nutritious food holds, the Farm Bill will enshrine tens of billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury to spend on food that actually could cause more harm than good.

Let’s be clear, we are not calling for unhealthy foods to be banned by the federal government – we believe in free markets. But funneling billions of dollars to subsidize unhealthy food or beverages for children, and, in turn, increasing the risk of diabetes, is not an example of the freedom we all hold dear, or a responsible use of taxpayer dollars. Instead, this is an example of a rigged market, government corporate cronyism, and a dereliction of our duty to children.

Parents are tired of seeing the harrowing health trends among our children, and taxpayers should be outraged that our government is funding the root cause. There is one simple action that would improve the lives of millions of children and save billions of dollars in downstream health costs, and one that we should have a bipartisan rallying cry for. 

As the Farm Bill comes up for renewal, we hope that we can all agree on a simple, bipartisan solution that will save the lives of kids: no SNAP funding for sugar-added beverages and non-nutritious foods. 

Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. is the current Chairman of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies subcommittee on Appropriations. He represents Maryland’s First Congressional District.

Calley Means is co-founder of TrueMed, which enables patients to use Health Savings Accounts to purchase food that reverses disease.