Mark Bittman: "Regulating Our Sugar Habit"

There's a really interesting article by Mark Bittman in today's New York Times (online edition) about the latest twist in the debate over regulating what foods can be purchased by those using food stamps. Actually, I should have used "edible foodlike substances" (Michael Pollan's term) instead of "foods."

Here are the first two paragraphs of "Regulating Our Sugar Habit." Click here to read the entire piece and, if you have time, skim through some of the comments. There are some intelligent points made by those on both sides of the argument.

"When Ronda Storms, a Republican state senator in Florida, is accused of nanny-state-ism for her efforts on behalf of a sane diet, it’s worth noting. When she introduced a bill to prevent people in Florida from spending food stamps on unhealthy items like candy, chips and soda, she broke ranks: few of her party have taken on Big Food. And as someone who has called for the defunding of an educational Planned Parenthood program and banning library book displays supporting Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, she is hardly in her party’s left wing. Not surprisingly, she’s faced criticism from every corner: Democrats think she’s attacking poor people, and Republicans see Michelle Obama. Soon after Storms proposed the bill, she told me, 'Coca-Cola and Kraft were in my office' hating it.

"Yet she makes sense. 'It’s just bad public policy to allow unfettered access to all kinds of food,' she told me over the phone. 'Why should we cut all of these programs and continue to pay for people to use food stamps to buy potato chips, Oreos and Mountain Dew? The goal is to feed good food to hungry people.'"