Published: June 2014

ID #: 71252

Journal: Health Affairs (Millwood)

Authors: Basu S, Seligman HK, Gardner C, Bhattacharya J

See more related research

Share


This paper models the potential impact of two proposed policy changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): a ban on using SNAP dollars to buy sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs); and a subsidy structured so that for every SNAP dollar spent on fruits and vegetables, thirty cents is credited back to participants’ SNAP benefits card. Researchers combined data from a nationally representative dietary survey and a price database of nearly 20,000 child and adult SNAP participants to simulate the proposed policies using a combination of economic and epidemiological modeling techniques. Researchers found that banning the use of SNAP dollars for the purchase of SSBs would be expected to significantly reduce obesity prevalence and type 2 diabetes incidence, particularly among adults ages 18 to 65 and among non-Black, non-Mexican ethnic minorities such as other Latinos and Asians. The fruit and vegetable subsidy would not be expected to have a significant effect on obesity prevalence or type 2 diabetes incidence, but it would be expected to significantly increase fruit and vegetable consumption and more than double the proportion of SNAP participants who meet federal fruit and vegetable consumption guidelines.

Related Research

September 2013

Improving Healthy Eating Among Children Through Changes in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Policies: An Economic Microsimulation

Over 10 million children participate in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Recent proposed policy changes have suggested banning or taxing the use of SNAP benefits for sugar-sweetened beverage purchases and/or subsidizing fruit and vegetable purchases with SNAP benefits. Several uncertainties about these proposed policies remain unanswered: 1) How will substitution of some products More

June 2025

Changes in SNAP Participation and Food Expenditures for Households with Children During the Pandemic

The purposes of this research were to explore the characteristics of households with children that joined SNAP after substantial changes were made to the program in the early stages of the pandemic and to learn how the changes affected food purchases. The research team used household-based scanner data to assess demographic characteristics and food purchase More

February 2025

Consumption of the Food Groups with the Revised Benefits in the New WIC Food Package: A Scoping Review

On 18 April 2024, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the first food package changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in over a decade, which reduced some food benefits (juice, milk, canned fish, and infant fruits and vegetables) and offered substitutes (cash-value vouchers (CVVs) or cash-value More