“Welfare benefits are a hand-up for those in desperate, temporary need,” said Governor Tate Reeves. “When taxpayers fund these things, they do so strategically. They're trying to help their neighbors into a better life – a more fulfilling one. That means a job you can be proud of, and a lifestyle that is healthy: on a physical and spiritual level.
“In a nation that is printing money daily just to make our debt payments, it doesn't make sense to throw your tax money at anything other than the true necessities. So it makes no sense at all to fund sugar instead of hearty nutritious meals. That's why we're amending our food stamp rules to allow good sustaining food like rotisserie chickens and disallow sugary candy and drinks. If the first ingredient is sugar or corn syrup, it won't be available with taxpayer money any more. This has been approved by the Trump administration in 12 states, and I expect Mississippi to be the next. It's just common sense.”
Once Governor Reeves’ request is approved by the USDA, processed foods that list sugar, cane sugar, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup as the first two ingredients will be prohibited for purchase using SNAP benefits. This excludes granulated sugar, raw sugar, and other single-ingredient sugars used for cooking and baking.
Beverages that list carbonated water and sugar, cane sugar, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup as the first two ingredients will also be prohibited for purchase using SNAP benefits. Beverages that list aspartame or other low- or noncaloric sweeteners as the first two ingredients will remain eligible for purchase. Hot prepared chicken will now also be eligible for purchase using SNAP benefits. This includes items like rotisserie and non-fried, non-breaded chicken. Mississippi will also collaborate with the Double Up Food Bucks Program to encourage and increase the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables when hot prepared chicken is purchased. Governor Reeves’ waiver requests are in line with the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mission to Make America Healthy Again.
36 comments:
It's about damned time. Get that crap out of the public schools, too.
Applaud the move but also wonder why it took so long.
LBC comes out against in 3 ... 2 ... 1
"Banning junk food from SNAP purchases should be step one."
This was a comment from someone yesterday on the fitness test post
but, but, but, that's mean
so junk food prices will finally come down but bagged cooked chicken will skyrocket.........yes. We are paying more for food because half our people on stamps.
Great. I'm not happy until Bennie isn't happy.
He just banned peanut butter. Second ingredient is sugar. As it does not say raw sugar. This will go over well. Yes, it has sugar but the Food Nazis will howl about the Food of the Millennium. A PBJ sammich. But I guess Worm Brain’s heroin was healthy.
The USDA isn’t just funding any sugar. It is CORN Sugar! Tater Tot hates Mississippi corn farmers! Farm Families of Mississippi should remember that Tater wants your family to do without while others can get hot chickens!
This should have been done 25 years ago, before 42.5% of Mississippians became obese, waddled &/or faced consequences of diabetes type 2. Sometimes I count the extreme overweight people in the grocery store vs healthy looking weight. Usually it's 5 or 7 to 1. Most of the overweight are women. I say a hasty prayer for the worst of them, that they can find a path to a healthier lifestyle. But many must feel if it's for sale, it must be OK.
Natural peanut butter has peanuts and salt, no sugar. Plus it needs no refrigeration.
Most are women because they usually do the grocery shopping.
How is Bennie going to keep his people fat, dumb, and happy?
Corn Farmers don't put corn syrup in peanut butter. I love adding fresh corn I cut off the cob to home made soup, towards the end of cooking.
President Trump and Governor Reeves would do more to fight the obesity epidemic if they signed Exexutive Orders to fund Wegovy shots just like they did the covid clotshot!
He just got his marching orders. Tater doesn't sneeze without permission from afar.
Just keeps getting worse for MS EBT folks
Seriously? Please substantiate this comment with reliable evidence, not your own opinion.
11:03am
I grocery shop at Kroger, Walmart and Costco. It's close to between 60/40 to 50/50 women and men. I shop because I cook now after my wife cooked 30 years and wants no more of it. In all 3 stores, obese women dominate.
Even junk food can be healthier. I discovered Boulder Classic Potato chips at Costco with only Potatoes, Avocado oil and sea salt as ingredients. Best chips I ever had.
"If the first ingredient is sugar or corn syrup, it won't be available with taxpayer money any more."
If the first ingredient is bourbon or scotch, ban it from the capitol and the governor's mansion.
I understand the logic, but he's taken it too far with breaded chicken. Chicken nuggets/tenders are all some kids will eat.
Now, off to Costco to find some Boulder chips. Thanks for the tip Krusatyr.
Walmart, Kroger etc. also sell rotisserie chicken and prepared lunches and other "healthy" foods. So they will still make their money. That's the important thing.
I'm thinking the Gov enjoys a little junk food now and then (all the time).
Always check the sodium content listed on the label for rotisserie chicken, as it is usually very high They are cooking it for taste, not health. One way they attempt to make the sodium level per serving appear smaller is by inflating how many servings there are. Mac's in Ridgeland has very good rotisserie chicken IMO.
Check the ingredients on the packaged breaded chicken and see how healthy you think it is. Buy raw and learn to cook.
There are no more true "rotisserie chickens". Grocery stores and Costco are selling baked/roasted chickens. You can tell by looking at the bottom of the chicken which is white, not brown, like the top. This remains an economical, healthier choice, compared to fried chicken pieces. Bones, skin and gristle can be simmered 3 hours with bay leaves to make 2 quarts of chicken stock.
I’m sure coke, Pepsi and little Debbie have no trouble being removed from the EBT program, what with all their lobbying money to be on there in the first place. At most this is state govt wanting their cut
If we're worried about people on government subsidies making unhealthy decisions, and thereby further burdening the system, then how about we ban people on Medicare from consuming alcohol?
I’m on Medicare and don’t drink. BTW I worked from age 12 to age 62 to pay into the system while working 2 jobs most of the time.. I never received one unemployment check even when I could have due to business closures. I hustled & found a job to feed my family!
A quick google search shows that obesity rates are virtually the same for men and women. Women are the grocery shoppers in most families so, yes, you see more women than men in stores. Women are far more likely to seek medical care for obesity than men, too.
I make chicken strips for hubby and freeze them. They are far superior to any pre-breaded store-bought stuff. Buy a pack of chicken tenderloins, pat them dry, sprinkle with salt, pepper, cayenne, powdered mustard, onion, garlic and cumin (or whatever you like), dredge them in mayonnaise, roll them in panko, put them on a wire rack over a sheet pan, oven roast at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, let cool and package for freezer. I use the convection setting on our oven so I don't have to flip them,
Our air fryer has a rotisserie attachment which I occasionally use to cook a Cornish game hen. It's too small for a regular chicken. One Cornish hen feeds husband and me for dinner and it's kinda fun to rotisserie a hen.
@6:34 because most of the people on SNAP didn’t pay into the system, I worked in high school, put myself through college working all night, have worked a full time job and a part time job most of my life. I have paid for WIC, SNAP, TANF, and HUD without any choice. Besides the known benefits of ETOH for reducing atherosclerosis, if I want a drink after a lifetime of working my ass off so others can sit on theirs, you better damn well believe I deserve it.
9:01, You assume that people currently receiving SNAP benefits have never worked, and will never work, to pay into that system.
Sure, there are some lifers, but there are also plenty who just need help for a while. How many there are of each group is something the state and federal governments should already know, and should publish to inform the public discussion. Politicians don't include this information in their press releases or speeches is anybody's guess.
And the idea that alcohol is healthy is so ridiculous it makes me wonder why you have to tell yourself that to justify your drinking.
@9:01 that’s a lot of words to tell me you have absolutely no expertise in physiology, nutrition or the medical field, which I do. The fact that moderate intake of ETOH have a beneficial effect on the reduction of and or formation of interstitial plaque deposition have been well established and accepted in the medical field for decades. And no I don’t have to tell myself anything as I am an adult capable of critical analysis.
2:07: Maybe you should update your knowledge of this topic. This study is from April, 2025:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1563759/full
How long did it take you to find that obscure article? Rookie mistake, never heard of frontiers in nutrition. I can google a “scientific” article on the existence of Bigfoot. If you have a religious objection to ETOH intake, or your husband was an alcoholic, fine I get it. But don’t confuse your emotional opinion with decades of peer reviewed real scientific research and experience.
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