Laura, are you a soda drinker?

Of course. Who doesn't drink soda, right?

That's our colleague Laura Cooper, who covers the beverage industry.

Do you have a preference?

I have an answer, but I don't know if I should say.

It's a secret. We'll find out someday.

Yes.

When it comes to soda, Laura has recently been looking into a fight that's been brewing in one particular state, Arkansas.

There's an effort there now to restrict what people can buy with food stamps, also known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

No more junk food for Arkansas on the taxpayers dime.

That's what Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is proposing.

Sanders says people who receive supplemental food benefits, also known as SNAP benefits,

should not be able to use those funds to purchase snacks, candy, or desserts.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who's the governor there, has been pretty clear that she is interested in

amending what can be paid for by SNAP in that state.

She said that there was a lot of diabetes and obesity in her state, and she thought that

people using SNAP to buy things like sugary beverages or desserts or something like that,

that would be a contributing factor to that. Here's Sanders making her case on Instagram.

A recent study found that if we just cut out sugary drinks and soda from SNAP, we could prevent

obesity in 141,000 kids and type 2 diabetes in nearly a quarter million adults.

Over the past 20 years, states have tried to get sugary drinks out of the SNAP program,

but those efforts have always fizzled. This time, though, Arkansas has a chance.

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