More on Food Stamps and America's Health

The fastest way that our nation could better the overall health of our citizens would be to regulate the food that can be purchased with food stamps. Let me explain. Food stamp recipients can currently buy just about any and every food and drink item with the exception of alcoholic beverages. With food stamps you can buy candy, ice cream, soda pop, and any array of high fat convenience foods. Since the food stamp market is over half of the national food market, it would change the grocery store landscape dramatically if we could require that only healthy foods were purchased with tax-payer funded food stamps. If there were regulations on fat and calorie content or if food stamps only purchased certain healthy foods like the government funded WIC program, then convenience food manufacturers would scramble to produce healthier alternatives and the freezer and snack sections of the stores would take on a whole new look. Don't those of us that pay taxes deserve to know that our taxes are paying for healthy foods, not contributing to obesity and even higher costs down the road when we pay for the increased medical costs that come with obesity and diabetes?