The hidden cost of our huge problem with obesity

America’s increasing national obesity problem might be tied to taxpayer-funded food stamps that pay for unhealthy foods like soft drinks, snacks and candy.

The reasons for these higher obesity rates are not fully understood. Since the 1970s, average daily calories have risen about the same percent for low-income and other Americans, although the types of calories vary. When food stamps were created in the 1960s, low earners suffered from insufficient food, but today they consume too much unhealthy food.  Chris Edwards is the Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies at the Cato Institute.

Congress should investigate whether federal food subsidies are feeding the epidemic before it reauthorizes the giant Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in this year’s farm bill. SNAP — the food stamp program — subsidizes food consumption for 42 million low-income Americans.