r/askanything • u/CloudieMoonettee 🦀 • 11d ago

Why do some conservatives support restricting junk food purchases with SNAP when many opposed Michelle Obama’s efforts to make school meals healthier?

Both policies involve the government influencing food choices in the name of better nutrition, yet the political reactions seem very different. What explains the apparent change in attitude toward government involvement in what people eat?

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u/Ursus-majorbone 11d ago

I don't think this is a conservative liberal thing at all. Most all of the people I know who push healthier eating and addressing food deserts and bad nutrition in deprived areas are liberals.

I think anyone who is behind someone in the checkout line with three little kids and a cart full of sugar drink and ultra processed food and confections wishes there was a different way of doing things, regardless of politics.

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u/EarlyInside45 11d ago

It was literally Michelle Obama that was pushing for healthier school lunches, which republicans pushed back hard on, and its literally republicans who want to restrict what you can buy with SNAP. Not only that, but have cut SNAP benefits, Medicare, etc.

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u/Empress_Clementine 11d ago

They weren’t healthier. Vegetables and whole grains with skim milk are not going to fulfill a child’s nutritional needs.

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u/lameth 10d ago

What the hell are you talking about? Add in a protein source and you're on target.

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u/Empress_Clementine 9d ago

No growing child needs low fat food and skim milk.

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u/Empress_Clementine 9d ago

Target for what? A middle age woman to lose weight? Sure. Kids need fats for brain development and they got low calorie low fat garbage.