With the recommendation in the new Dietary Guidelines to limit added sugar to 10 percent of daily calories, “consumers now know how much is too much,” say former agriculture secretaries Dan Glickman and Ann Veneman. “Congress and USDA should consider whether the limit on added sugar could also inform their thinking about other nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. To further their understanding, Congress should commission the National Academy of Medicine to define the types and amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages that could be removed from these federal nutrition programs,” the two wrote in a Bipartisan Policy Center blog.
Together, they led USDA from 1995-2005, Glickman during the Clinton era and Veneman in the first term of President George W Bush.
In the blog, Glickman and Veneman say, “The clear 10 percent limit is an important step in the effort to reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease in our country.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack faced a similar question — why not make soda ineligible for purchase with food stamps? — during a town hall session at the American Farm Bureau Federation meeting. “There are technological problems,” he responded. Supermarkets sell tens of thousands of items, so it would be daunting to compile of list of products that can be purchased and those that can’t. As an example, he said, fruit juices also can be high in sugar. “It’s not easy to distinguish between the two [natural juices and soda].” Vilsack also said “there’s not much difference” between the diets of people who are or are not food stamp recipients.
(FERN explored the idea of a SNAP ban on sugary drinks in a 2013 piece with Slate.)
The recommendation on sugar was headlined as one of the “key recommendations” of the new edition of the guidelines. It was the first time a quantitative limit was proposed on added sugars, which are sweeteners added by processors, cooks and consumers.
The American Heart Association said the recommendation meant that someone consuming 2,000 calories of food a day would restrict added sugar to 200 calories, “less than the amount found in a 20-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage. The AHA encourages Americans to curb consumption of added sugars, especially from sugar-sweetened beverages like regular sodas, sports drinks and fruit-flavored drinks.” In addition, the AHA journal Circulation said data from a federally supported research project found that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily was associated with an increase in a type of body fat that may affect the risk of diabetes and heart disease.