Soda sales fizzle among SNAP recipients in first 6 months of RFK Jr.s MAHA movement

It’s a sugar crash.Soda sales have fizzled out in the US after junk food was banned in some states for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, recipients, according to a new study.Sales of soda fell around 12% among SNAP recipients after the bans were introduced in 10 states as part of Health Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, STAT News reported, citing findings of a study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research.That translated to a person drinking roughly 34 fewer 12-ounce cans of soda per year.The study’s authors used data from the first half of 2026 on grocery purchases in 15,000 food stamp households, of which just over 20% were in the 10 states that had implemented restrictions on soda, candy and other junk food purchases.It is the first study of its kind since the earliest state-level bans were brought in on Jan.

1 in Utah and April 1 in Texas.Further programs were launched throughout the spring, with a total of 23 states receiving waivers from the US Department of Agriculture to implement restrictions on junk food.Bans are currently suspended in five of those states — Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia — after a federal ruling.The study’s authors say the drop in sugary drink sales could reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 2.6% over the next 10 years per patient, resulting in some 34,000 fewer cases in the US.Soda and other sweetened beverages are to blame for roughly 1 million new cases of heart disease and 2 million new type 2 diabetics worldwide each year, according to a 2025 study published in Nature Medicine.“It leads to a billion dollars of savings for the health care system. Given how big the health care system is, it’s a drop in the bucket.On the other hand, it’s $1 billion a year,” said study co-author Matt Notowidigdo, economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.“If the goal is to reduce obesity, reduc...