AMA goes out on a limb

Steve - The headline is tongue and cheek. This should have asked for decades ago.

Physicians voted yesterday to ask the American Medical Association (AMA) to push for removing sugar-sweetened drinks from items available under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program here at the AMA 2013 Annual Meeting.

Millions of Americans receive food assistance, and studies have shown that 58% of the beverages purchased through the program are sugar-sweetened. Consumption of these drinks is associated with weight gain and a higher risk for obesity.

The food assistance program pays at least $2 billion a year for sugar-sweetened beverages purchased as groceries alone. Cost estimates are likely much higher when you add in sugary drinks purchased outside grocery stores, according to a study by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

In addition to removing the drinks, the new policy calls on the AMA to encourage physicians to educate their patients about the effects of the drinks and asks state health agencies to include nutrition information in materials sent to food assistance recipients.