Lifestyle Sports: Latest from Food Politics: Nutritionally hilarious: Louisiana's definition of "soft drinks" for its SNAP waiver

By Marion Nestle

August 27 2025

Nutritionally hilarious: Louisiana’s definition of “soft drinks” for its SNAP waiver

I am indebted to Melissa Fuster at Tulane University (congratulations on achieving tenure!) and Megan Knapp of Xavier University of Louisiana for telling me about this one.

The USDA has just approved a waiver for the State of Louisiana to exclude soft drinks, energy drinks, and candy from allowable purchases with SNAP benefits.

Check the definition of excluded soft drinks [my emphasis]:

“Soft drinks” are defined as any carbonated nonalcoholic beverage containing high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.

By this definition, soft drinks made with cane or beet sugar are fully allowed to be purchased using SNAP benefits.

What is the difference between high fructose corn syrup and cane or beet sugar? Not much. All are mixtures of glucose and fructose and have the same number of calories.

So why the distinction?

Guess which state is the #2 producer of cane sugar.

As I said, nutritionally hilarious (see my clip in John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on this point).

The post Nutritionally hilarious: Louisiana’s definition of “soft drinks” for its SNAP waiver appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle

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