Children’s HealthWatch’s recent letter to Pediatrics  about SNAP and Child Nutrition was featured in the FRAC News Digest mailing.  The following paragraph is from the News Digest.

Researchers Say Press Coverage of SNAP/Food Stamp Research on Child Nutrition and Obesity is Inaccurate

(Pediatrics, March 25, 2013)

Press coverage of an article in the journal Pediatrics, including a headline “Food Stamps Don’t Help Improve Nutrition for Children,” is inaccurate, notes this response by Children’s HealthWatch pediatricians and researchers on the Pediatrics website. The article in question – “Associations of the Food Stamp Program with Dietary Quality and Obesity in Children,” reports that SNAP/Food Stamps were associated with “small but statistically significant odds of improved intake of water and three key micronutrients – calcium, folate and iron – all essential for children’s bone, cognitive, and neurodevelopmental health, but are insufficient in the diets of many. In addition, the study authors found that SNAP/Food Stamp participation, in their national sample of more than 5,000 low-income children age 4-19, was not associated with “increased macronutrient intake, overweight or obesity.” Regardless of SNAP/Food Stamp participation, the authors found that low-income American children did not meet national dietary recommendations, which is consistent with Institute of Medicine and National Research Council findings. Those studies found that the SNAP/Food Stamp Program does not provide enough assistance for participants to consistently purchase healthy food. It’s critical for communications to avoid misrepresenting scientific articles, especially now that lawmakers are proposing cutting billions from the SNAP/Food Stamp Program, they write. “Policymakers look to scientific work like the Leung article to guide their choices, but some do not dig deeper than the ‘Study shows…’ headline to form their positions. It is therefore critical that communications from the AAP avoid misrepresenting scientific articles.”