Gov. Jim Pillen and Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services CEO, Dr. Steve Corsi, are on the record that soda pop and candy are sugar highs that over time can lead to serious health-related lows. Good call.

A letter of intent from the governor to the USDA asserts the state wants to join a number of other states that ban SNAP recipients from using their benefits for pop and candy. Nice: Now do everybody else.

That’s because the Pillen/Corsi argument is that pop and candy are unhealthy, especially for children. No one is claiming otherwise, plus the scientists have the receipts to back it up. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that adult obesity continues to rise. Its latest numbers, reported in the fall of 2024, showed that 35% of adults in 23 states had obesity, including Nebraska at 36.6%. A decade earlier no state was above that threshold.

Childhood Obesity

Among children the obesity rate has risen to nearly one in five kids dealing with the consequences of unhealthy weight. According to the CDC, the cost of childhood obesity checks in at $1.3 billion.

Diabetes among children has reached historic numbers, too. According to research published in the “Journal of Diabetes,” Type 2 diabetes in children aged 10-19 has doubled in the past decade, and Type 1 Diabetes has grown from 20 to 22 children per 100,000.

Although diabetes and obesity are disproportionately higher in low-income communities, no one on the poverty-to-wealth continuum is immune from the persistence of both maladies. Restricting SNAP beneficiaries may address one particular income group, but if pop and sugar are bad for poor kids, they are bad for rich ones, too.

Others Have Tried

Several attempts at previous nutritional causes and movements have been met with fierce and forceful pushback, accompanied by fevered charges of nanny-state overreach.

In 2012, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed banning sugary drinks over 16 ounces in the Big Apple. Yes, hell did break loose. No, the ban never went into effect.

The nation’s soft drink industry eventually prevailed in the New York Supreme Court, which ruled the city’s Board of Health, which pushed Bloomberg’s idea, failed to stay in its lane. To wit: New Yorkers, like the rest of us, can still supersize their sweet drinks.

In 2009, first lady Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move,” a program to offset the march of childhood obesity in America. In addition to encouraging exercise, Obama also worked with Congress to lower the level of fats, calories, salt, sugar and sodium and increase the amount of fruits and veggies students found in the school cafeteria line. You would have thought she slipped state secrets to our adversaries. The pushback was intense and personal from talk radio to the blogosphere, including a Fox News contributor who argued that Obama needed to “drop a few pounds” before trafficking in nutritional advice.

Sadly, such bilge still passes for argument today.

Eventually, Congress passed a law that allowed schools to opt out of the healthier standards because what’s a good idea — helping kids eat healthier — without a way to get around it.

Taxpayer Funds

Sure, taxpayers foot the food bill for SNAP recipients, but we also pay the federal freight for scores of others who benefit from government largess. What would be the reaction if we required all those with tax breaks or direct subsidies from the feds not to not use said benefits for jelly beans, Dr. Pepper, et al?

While Nebraska’s letter of intent may be in line with a national focus coming in part from federal health officials, taking cues from Washington may not always be in the state’s best interest, a lesson perhaps learned in the recent “blue dot” vote in the Nebraska Legislature.

Finally, if we’re talking about getting healthy food to children, we should also be discussing the prevalence of food deserts in the state. Food deserts are generally defined as areas where access to “affordable, healthy food options (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.”

Instead, residents in these areas often end up buying food designed for a longer shelf life and all too often filled with sugar and other preservatives.

Although often associated with urban areas, food deserts, according to the Center for Rural Affairs, can be found in 11 Nebraska counties: Blaine, Custer, Duel, Dundy, Grant, Hitchcock, Hooker, Jefferson, Keya Paha, Morrill and Sioux.

Yes, let’s talk about nutritious food for kids. But if we want an even healthier Nebraska, don’t stop with SNAP.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/04/14/sugary-candy-soda-pop-know-no-in...

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