The Daily Star, Hammond, La., on hunger directly relates to health

Jan. 12
The Daily Star, Hammond, La., on hunger directly relates to health:
If this nation wants to cut health care costs, cutting nutrition is not the right direction.
According to reports from the Associated Press, research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts last year estimated that a cut of $2 billion a year in food stamps could trigger an increase of $15 billion in medical costs for diabetes over the next decade. Other research shows children from food-insecure families are 30 percent more likely to have been hospitalized for a range of illnesses. The nation’s medical community says cutting food aid could backfire through higher Medicaid and Medicare costs in the future.
Congress is working on a compromise farm bill that is expected to cut at least $800 million a year to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which feeds 1 in 7 Americans and costs almost $80 billion a year. After the 2009 temporary benefit expired in November, a family of four receiving food stamps is now getting $36 less a month. The average household benefit is around $270. About half of food stamp recipients are children, and 10 percent are elderly.
Dr. Thomas McInerny, past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has said too often, poor families buy cheap, high-calorie junk food because it’s filling, but it lacks nutrients needed for proper child development. The two main consequences are later-in-life diabetes and iron deficiency that, especially in the first three years of life, can damage a developing brain so that children have trouble learning in school.
“The children may not look malnourished the way children in Third World countries look,” he said, “but they are malnourished.”
The SNAP program is an important safety net for American children and the elderly. Instead of denying them nutrition, the overriding goals should be to help people get the education and skills they need to get back on their feet so they can provide for themselves and their families.
Online:
http://www.hammondstar.com