{"id":122095,"date":"2025-08-05T23:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/122095\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T23:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:11:11","slug":"polis-becomes-first-democratic-governor-to-gain-usda-approval-for-snap-soda-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/122095\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis becomes first Democratic governor to gain USDA approval for SNAP soda restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s governor has signed on to a controversial component of President Donald Trump\u2019s dubiously named \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d<\/a> agenda, becoming the country\u2019s first Democratic governor to secure federal approval to ban food assistance recipients<\/a> from using their benefits to buy soda and other sugary drinks. The ban is set to begin in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Republican Party \u2014 that is, the party that once demonized then-first lady Michelle Obama<\/a> for discouraging the consumption of sugary drinks \u2014 has now led a movement targeting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients who buy them.<\/p>\n

Several GOP-led states have asked for \u2014 and received<\/a> \u2014 Agriculture Department waivers allowing them to restrict SNAP recipients from purchasing certain foods and beverages. And Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Monday that he\u2019s joining them.<\/p>\n

In a news release<\/a>, the Democrat called the federal approval to restrict soda and sugary drink consumption \u201ca big step towards improving the health of Coloradans, and reducing obesity rates, diabetes, and tooth decay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis\u2019 statement essentially echoed<\/a> one made by conspiratorial Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>, whose nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services was supported by Polis<\/a>. According to the news release, Colorado has pending requests for federal approval to expand SNAP recipients\u2019 ability to purchase food products from farmers markets and hot prepared foods from grocery stores.<\/p>\n

A recent NPR report<\/a> shone light on how SNAP recipients are concerned about how they\u2019ll feed themselves or their families as they face the potential of fewer benefits and fewer purchasing options. And while it may be easy for some people \u2014 of various political persuasions \u2014 to brush aside the troubling paternalism in all of this and assume that cutting off some Americans\u2019 access to certain foods is good policy, experts have sown doubt about the idea for years.<\/p>\n

For example, when public policy expert Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach testified to Congress <\/a>in 2017 about SNAP restrictions on soda and sugary drinks, she provided data to back up her view that such a ban would be \u201cdifficult to structure in practice, will be inefficiently targeted, and in many cases \u2014 such as a proposed ban of the purchase of soft drinks or sweetened beverages \u2014 will be unlikely to change consumption patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s governor has signed on to a controversial component of President Donald Trump\u2019s dubiously named \u201cMake America Healthy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[210,1182,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-122095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}