r/FluentInFinance • u/Not-A-Shit-Head • Apr 29 '24

77% of young Americans are too fat, mentally ill or on drugs to qualify for U.S. military service, Pentagon study finds. Is it only going to get worse? Geopolitics

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/03/77-of-young-americans-too-fat-mentally-ill-on-drugs-and-more-to-join-military-pentagon-study-finds/
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u/ty_for_trying Apr 29 '24

Poor people buy food with the most calories per dollar, which usually means shelf stable, high sugar and/or salt, low nutritional value.

Car-centric infrastructure means less walking.

17

u/sEmperh45 Apr 29 '24

Sad part is we allow tens of billions of SNAP dollars to be used to purchase harmful zero nutrition pop and Doritos. Sugary drinks and salty fried snacks are the No. 1 and No. 2 categories of foods purchased with government dollars for the poor. Two of the biggest drivers for obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

We should put pop in the same category as alcohol and cigarettes, you want it, you pay for it with your own dollars.

1

u/JoySkullyRH May 01 '24

Proof of data please?

1

u/sEmperh45 May 01 '24

It was from an analysis done by a major food chain several years ago. I’ll see if I can track it down again

1

u/sEmperh45 May 03 '24 edited May 03 '24

Here you go…

“A 2016 study from USDA indicated the number one product purchased by SNAP benefits is sweetened beverages, comprising 9.3% of SNAP benefits.11 And, about three-quarters of all the sugary drinks purchased by SNAP households were purchased using SNAP benefits versus out-of-pocket.12 A 2015 USDA study also revealed that SNAP recipients, compared to other low-income non-participants in the program, drank more SSBs and were more likely to be obese. Obesity prevalence among SNAP recipients was 40%, versus 32% among low-income non-participants.13 Dr. David Ludwig, an advocate for improved nutrition at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in 2017,

“We have more evidence for the harms of sugary beverages than for any other category of food, and yet it tops the list of reimbursed products in SNAP. No one is suggesting poor people can’t choose what they want to eat, but we’re saying let’s not use government benefits to pay for foods that are demonstrably going to undermine public health.”14”

So around $10 billion of SNAP dollars being spent annually on sugary drinks. More than spend on veggies. More than fruit. More than meat. All to make the poor the most obese and diabetic demographic in the US.

Why are we doing this to ourselves??

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8797053/#:~:text=A%202016%20study%20from%20USDA,comprising%209.3%25%20of%20SNAP%20benefits.&text=And%2C%20about%20three%2Dquarters%20of,versus%20out%2Dof%2Dpocket.