American Heart Association Supports SODA and JUNK FOOD???

Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast

Dr. Eric Berg

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

DATA: https://www.leefang.com/p/sugary-soda-industrys-covert-influencer https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/company-collaboration/food-system-strategy/aha-industry-nutrition-forum/industry-nutrition-forum-members

Most people know that the American Heart Association receives funding from the junk food industry, so it may not have come as a surprise that they openly rejected the SNAP reform bill. After much embarrassment, they retracted their statements and claimed to no longer oppose the bill.

Soda is the most frequently purchased item under the SNAP program. Soda lobbyists argue that the SNAP reform bill violates the liberty of choosing what you want to eat and drink!

Junk food companies are paying social media influencers to oppose the SNAP reform bill and focus on food insecurity.

Government subsidies for food first started during the Great Depression, but they have since become much more corrupt. Today, the system continues to make the junk food industry richer. Big Food and Big Pharma continue to benefit from this system at the expense of taxpayers and the health of the American people.

The SNAP program should allow people to purchase nutrient-dense foods and prevent the purchase of ultra-processed foods. This would reduce chronic disease and save people money on prescription medications.

Junk food companies oppose SNAP reform because a tremendous amount of money is at stake. Soda industry subsidies alone are a 10 billion dollar business!

Transcript

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0:00.0	The American Heart Association, the organization that is supposed to prevent heart disease,
0:04.8	the number one killer worldwide, and they showed up at a committee in Texas where they're trying
0:10.2	to pass a bill. This bill would restrict people from using food stamps for things like sugary drinks,
0:16.0	candy, and other unhealthy foods. For the American Heart Association to be against this bill, that might be the surprise of the session.
0:25.3	And out of all the groups that would oppose that bill would shock me,
0:28.1	the American Heart Association's director for governmental relationships who came in and opposed it.
0:33.7	I certainly understand why that might be surprising.
0:35.8	Now, I think most people know that the American Heart Association gets a lot of funding from the junk food industry.
0:41.3	But from a public relation standpoint, you don't want the American Heart Association opposing something like that.
0:48.3	Well, they did. They were embarrassed.
0:50.3	The Heart Association is concerned about potential impacts of this bill on participation and
0:55.1	population health.
0:56.1	I just was astonished that the American Heart Association was against our SNAP reformed
1:02.7	bill that would just say you can't have sugary drinks, you can't chips, cookies, limiting
1:08.2	that and pushing people more to protein density-rich foods.
1:12.7	They now say that they're no longer opposing that bill.
1:15.0	I certainly understand why that might be surprising.
1:16.9	Did you realize that of all the foods, soda is the single most frequent item bought
1:22.9	under the SNAP program?
1:24.7	There's a lot at stake for the soda industry because the subsidies, dollars from taxpayers pay for the SNAP program. There's a lot at stake for the soda industry because the subsidies,
1:28.1	dollars from taxpayers, pay for the SNAP program in the amount of $10 billion, not million
1:34.4	dollars, $10 billion a year for that soda, which then lead to obesity type 2 diabetes,
	...

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