New Yorkers do occasionally have some good ideas. They promoted the elimination of trans fats, the prohibition of smoking in restaurants, and recently they tossed out the idea of banning the purchase of sugary sodas with Food Stamps.
The thinking behind the concept, proposed by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. David A. Patterson, is that since Food Stamps are given out by the government in the name of nutrition, they shouldn't be used to buy products that contribute to obesity and diabetes.
The New Yorkers have asked the United States Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federal Food Stamp program, for permission to bar the sales of sugary drinks with food stamps in New York City. The banned beverages would be those with more than 10 calories per 8 ounces. The ban would last for a two-year study period and would exclude milk products, fruit juices without sugar and milk substitutes.
Such a ban, they contend, would help curb the spread of obesity, especially in poorer neighborhoods where obesity rates and the consumption of sugar-loaded beverages are higher than in other neighborhoods.
Mayor Bloomberg has a habit, as a beverage industry spokeswoman told The New York Times, of telling people what they shouldn't eat and drink. Like a lot us, he appears to be better at prescribing standards for healthy living than abiding by them. Mayor Bloomberg, according to press reports, has a taste for salt, cheeseburgers, and peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.
Mr. Bloomberg's recent proposal has also been subject to the same criticism leveled at an attempt in Minnesota to prevent Food Stamp recipients from buying junk food — that it implies that Food Stamp users make poor food shopping decisions, or that it might lead to embarrassment at the checkout counter. That Minnesota proposal, made in 2004, was the only other formal request that the USDA has received asking for a change in the definition of foods eligible to be redeemed by Food Stamps. It was turned down. The USDA said it was reviewing the New York proposal.
The New Yorkers are onto something. Already Food Stamps cannot be used to buy liquor, beer or cigarettes. Plastic cards that function like credit cards are connected to systems that read the UPC codes of products, and kick out those that are not covered by the Food Stamp program. Adding sugary beverages, a product the USDA has acknowledged to be of minimal nutritional value, to that list of disallowed items is a logical step. The complaint that the proposal fosters a nanny state fails to consider that if you're on Food Stamps, the state is, in fact, your nanny.
Food Stamp recipients could buy sugary beverages if they chose to, but not with government support. It also seems likely that, thanks to the workings of the marketplace, grocery stores doing a large business in Food Stamps would soon carry beverages that are Food Stamp eligible.
To some extent, this is a question of economics. Why should government spend money subsidizing sugary beverages low in nutrition that can cause health problems — problems that the government might eventually have to pay to treat? Obesity-related illness, according to studies, costs New York state close to $8 billion in medical costs each year. The amount of calories consumed by drinking 12 ounces of sugary soda a day can, health officials say, increase a person's weight by 15 pounds a year.
Baltimore's health commissioner, Oxiris Barbot, who used to work in New York as the director of the city's office of school health, said in a statement that the Bloomberg proposal deserves a careful review.
She cautioned that many city residents who are at higher risk of becoming obese and developing health problems live in so-called food deserts where there is little access to healthy foods and fresh produce. In these areas, the city operates virtual supermarket programs in which health department employees help residents order their groceries online at city libraries. Shoppers who buy healthy foods get a $10 coupon.
Baltimore has adopted a few other public health ideas from New York, notably the ban on trans fats and outlawing smoking in restaurants. It ought to take a close look at the idea of banning the purchase of sugary sodas with Food Stamps.