It’s been widely reported that Trump’s proposed budget would substitute a new USDA “America’s Harvest Box” of non-perishable food for a major portion of the SNAP (“food stamp”) benefits of any family receiving more than $90 per month in such benefits. This has been roundly criticized for denying recipients freedom of choice and for introducing new hassles and expenses for assembling and distributing these boxes each month. But what has been less widely reported, at least in the reports I’ve seen, is the cultural insensitivity and dietary stupidity of the contents of these boxes.
Those foods would include shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned meat, fruits and vegetables, according to the USDA.
www.washingtonpost.com/…
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says this package would “maintain the same level of food value” as recipients currently receive, but would be cheaper because USDA can buy the food wholesale. That’s of course ignoring the costs of distribution, which constitute a major part of the reason that groceries cost more at retail than they do at wholesale. But it maintains “the same level of food value” only if the recipients can actually eat the stuff without harming their health. Let’s look at a few of the items on the list:
First, milk. Milk is a fine food IF you’re not lactose-intolerant, but a terrible food if you ARE lactose intolerant. And lactose intolerance, while relatively uncommon among people of northern European ancestry such as Secretary Perdue and Donald Trump, is extremely common among members of many other ethnic groups, including at least 90% of East Asians, 80% of Native Americans, about 75% of African-Americans, and about 50% of Latinos. milk.procon.org/… If you can’t drink the stuff, milk isn’t providing ANY level of food value.
And then let’s look at peanut butter. For reasons that are apparently still unknown, peanut allergy has been increasing rapidly, at least among young children. Although it’s still uncommon (estimated at about 2% of pre-school children), its consequences can be extremely severe — up to and including death from anaphylactic shock. Most families that include someone with peanut allergy don’t allow any peanut-containing products anywhere in the house, for fear of inadvertent exposure. I’ve personally known two people who suffered severe allergic reactions to the ingestion of food that apparently included tiny amounts of something containing peanuts. I love peanut butter, but if you can’t eat it, it provides ZERO “food value.”
Finally, let’s look at canned meat, fruit and vegetables. Hypertension is a severe problem in this country, especially among poor people. Part of the reason may be diet. But much of the reason is the chronic stress of struggling with life in this country when you’re poor. Every doctor will tell you that for someone with hypertension, it is important to limit the amount of salt in the diet. And what is the difference between most canned meats and vegetables and their fresh or frozen equivalent? One big on is the much higher quantity of SALT in most of the canned products. Yes, it’s possible to buy low-salt canned products, but they tend to be expensive, and I’d bet a lot of money that’s not what’s going to be in the USDA “America’s Harvest Box.”
So let’s look at the sodium content of some equivalent quantities of canned vs. fresh or frozen vegetables:
Green beans, 1 cup, canned and drained, USDA commodity food: 409 mg of sodium
Green beans, 1 cup, frozen, boiled and drained without salt: 1 mg of sodium
Corn (sweet), 1 cup, canned and drained, USDA commodity food: 489 mg of sodium
Corn (sweet), 1 cup frozen, boiled and drained without salt: 2 mg of sodium
Note: Values are from nutritiondata.self.com
This is just one more of the many reasons that this is another terrible idea from the Trump administration. Will they ever produce a GOOD idea?
