Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
Nutritionally hilarious: Louisiana’s definition of “soft drinks” for its SNAP waiver
I am indebted to Melissa Fuster at Tulane University (congratulations on achieving tenure!) and Megan Knapp of Xavier University of Louisiana for telling me about this one.
The USDA has just approved a waiver for the State of Louisiana to exclude soft drinks, energy drinks, and candy from allowable purchases with SNAP benefits.
Check the definition of excluded soft drinks [my emphasis]:
“Soft drinks” are defined as any carbonated nonalcoholic beverage containing high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.
By this definition, soft drinks made with cane or beet sugar are fully allowed to be purchased using SNAP benefits.
What is the difference between high fructose corn syrup and cane or beet sugar? Not much. All are mixtures of glucose and fructose and have the same number of calories.
So why the distinction?
Guess which state is the #2 producer of cane sugar.
As I said, nutritionally hilarious (see my clip in John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on this point).
