Thursday, October 2, 2025

RFK Jr.’s Healthier Diet Goals Hindered

Must read

Introduction to the Issue

ALBANY, Ga. — Belinda McLoyd has been thinking about peanut butter. McLoyd, 64, receives a small monthly payment through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. “They don’t give you that much to work with,” she said. To fit her tight budget, she eats ramen noodles — high on sodium and low on nutrition — multiple times a week.

The Impact of SNAP Cuts on Healthy Eating

If she had more money, said McLoyd, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and heart problems, she’d buy more grapes, melons, chuck roast, ground turkey, cabbage, and turnip greens. That’s what she did when lawmakers nearly doubled her SNAP benefit during the pandemic. But now that a GOP-led Congress has approved $186 billion in cuts to the food assistance program through 2034, McLoyd, who worked in retail until she retired in 2016, isn’t sure how she will be able to eat any healthy food if her benefits get reduced again. McLoyd said her only hope for healthy eating might be to resort to peanut butter, which she heard “has everything” in it.

Contrasting Priorities

The second Trump administration has said that healthy eating is a priority. It released a “Make America Healthy Again” report citing poor diet as a cause of childhood illnesses and chronic diseases. And it’s allowing states — including Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah — to limit purchases of unhealthy food with federal SNAP benefits for the first time in the history of the century-old anti-hunger program. President Donald Trump also signed a tax and spending law on July 4 that will shift costs to states and make it harder for people to qualify for SNAP by expanding existing work requirements.

Research and Expert Insights

Researchers say SNAP cuts run counter to efforts to help people prevent chronic illness through healthy food. “People are going to have to rely on cheaper food, which we know is more likely to be processed, less healthy,” said Kate Bauer, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “It’s, ‘Oh, we care about health — but for the rich people,’” she said. About 47 million people lived in households with limited or uncertain access to food in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Community Impact

Belinda McLoyd and other residents in Georgia’s Dougherty County, where Albany is located, already face steep barriers to accessing healthy food, from tight budgets and high rates of poverty to a lack of grocery stores and transportation, said Tiffany Terrell, who founded A Better Way Grocers in 2017 to bring fresh food to people who can’t travel to a grocery store. More than a third of residents receive SNAP benefits in the rural, majority-Black county that W.E.B. Du Bois described as “the heart of the Black Belt” and a place “of curiously mingled hope and pain,” where people struggled to get ahead in a land of former cotton plantations, in his 1903 book, “The Souls of Black Folk.”

The Role of SNAP in Promoting Healthy Eating

Terrell said that a healthier diet could mitigate many of the illnesses she sees in her community. In 2017, she replaced school bus seats with shelves stocked with fruits, vegetables, meats, and eggs and drove her mobile grocery store around to senior communities, public housing developments, and rural areas. But cuts to food assistance will devastate the region, setting back efforts to help residents boost their diet with fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious food and tackle chronic disease, she said. Terrell saw how SNAP recipients like McLoyd ate healthier when food assistance rose during the pandemic.

Limitations of Restrictions on SNAP Purchases

The Trump administration said it’s boosting healthy eating for low-income Americans through restrictions on what they can buy with SNAP benefits. It has begun approving state requests to limit the purchase of soda and candy with SNAP benefits. However, research shows that programs encouraging SNAP recipients to buy healthy food are more effective than regulating what they can buy. Such limits increase stigma on families that receive benefits, are burdensome to retailers, and often difficult to implement, researchers say.

Conclusion

The cuts to SNAP benefits pose a significant challenge to the goal of promoting a healthier national diet. With millions of Americans already struggling to access nutritious food, reducing their benefits will only exacerbate the problem. It is crucial to find alternative solutions that support low-income families in making healthy food choices without resorting to restrictive measures that may do more harm than good.

FAQs

  1. What are the proposed cuts to SNAP benefits?
    • The proposed cuts amount to $186 billion through 2034, which could affect the benefits of millions of recipients.
  2. How do SNAP cuts impact healthy eating?
    • SNAP cuts force individuals to rely on cheaper, often less healthy food options, which can lead to chronic illnesses and other health problems.
  3. What alternative approaches can promote healthy eating among SNAP recipients?
    • Programs that encourage the purchase of healthy foods, rather than restricting unhealthy ones, are considered more effective in promoting healthy eating habits.
  4. How will the restrictions on purchasing unhealthy food with SNAP benefits work?
    • The Trump administration has begun approving state requests to limit the purchase of items like soda and candy with SNAP benefits, though the effectiveness and feasibility of such restrictions are debated.
  5. What is the potential community impact of these cuts and restrictions?
    • The cuts and restrictions could devastate communities, especially rural and low-income areas, by reducing access to healthy food options and exacerbating existing health disparities.
- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest article