Why won’t the government pay for HEALTHY items

amother

Charcoal

Wed, Jun 28 2023, 10:55 pm

amother Navy wrote:

Bs. Kids eat what's available. Especially hungry kids. And especially kids whose taste buds haven't been corrupted by sweet everything. Obviously a kid who's used to vanilla almond milk and life cereal will only want that. But if all they ever had was unsweetened almond milk and bran flakes, they will have no problem eating that.

I don’t think this is true. I buy my kids whatever candy and nosh they want and it doesn’t get eaten. We have candy from Purim that just sits and no one eats. In the store they ask me for candy and I say we have that at home and they say oh yeah and put the candy down and they still won’t eat it. Candy platters from the candy stores sit and sit and sit. They choose to have cheerios or bran flakes. They don’t even put ketchup on hamburgers. Or anything. I think kids will eat what they want.

amother

Navy

Wed, Jun 28 2023, 10:59 pm

amother Charcoal wrote:

Your kids are unicorns.

Even the government agrees that kids like sweet stuff more Laugh

amother

Topaz

Wed, Jun 28 2023, 11:09 pm

amother OP wrote:

And sweetened almond milk (which is allowed) is sugar plus water in your reasoning?

Just want to add sorry Jasmine to put you on the spot like this but it’s just ludicrous to try and defend this idea so I had to put you in a little corner just to clarify facts here. Nothing personal.
I don’t think me and you should continue conversing on this thread because apparently your not looking for facts- your trying defend the gov for some weird reason. I won’t be responding to your posts further as we’re getting sidetracked and I really want and answer to my question- not pettiness

Really don't like this way of speaking to a fellow adult.

amother

Oleander

Wed, Jun 28 2023, 11:31 pm

amother OP wrote:

WHEN ITS EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE OR CHEAPER?
Example on Wic - milk- either you get regular milk or oat milk - but the only oat milk covered is the sweetened and flavored one. The unsweetened oat milk that costs exactly the same is uncovered. It’s as if they WANT you to have the extra sugar.
Take yogurt- only the regular not healthy yogurt is covered. Can’t get the unsweetened versions etc etc

Answer: because the government is an inefficient bureaucracy and doesn’t make sound logical decisions. That’s why large eggs in Lakewood which are covered by wic are more expensive than the extra large eggs that aren’t.

You can try to get to the bottom of it but you are wasting your time. Unless you want to devote your life to starting a grassroots effort to lobby Trenton to allow unsweetened oat milk. I suggest you move on and expend effort where is will make a difference. Unless you just want to get it if your chest, in which case you can let the thread go on another five pages in circles.

You’re welcome.

Reality

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 1:19 am

WIC has improved tremendously.

Twenty years ago, when my family was struggling and we made too much for every other program, WIC was the only thing we qualified.

It was amazing. That being said, the food allowed back then was EXTREMELY limited: milk, juice, cereal, cheese, eggs and peanut butter. And only unhealthy peanut butter. 100% peanut butter was NOT allowed. We had to buy hydrogenated peanut butter like Skippy. The amount of juice and cereal was insane.

It was so obvious to me as I was forced to speak to their "nutritionists" that they clearly had no idea what proper nutrition meant if they could tell me that the food they were giving me was healthy.

I was grateful for the help. But don't push down my throat that I was being given healthy food. I was being given cheap, processed "food" that lobbyists pushed for.

WIC has improved a lot! It offers so many more healthy food choices. There is nothing wrong with pushing for even more improvement!

Amarante

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 10:15 am

amother Mistyrose wrote:

Last I checked greek yogurt is not covered by wic. I wish. Lakewood based

If you want Greek style yogurt just put yogurt in cheese cloth and let the excess liquid drain.

This is how it was done before commercial Greek yogurt was widely available.

You can save the liquid for other use if you want as it probably has some nutritional value.

amother

Navy

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 10:31 am

amother Navyblue wrote:

Maybe they want to give foods that will actually get eaten?

Most kids I know wouldn't touch unsweetened yogurt. And not for lack of trying.

Kids touched unsweetened yogurt for centuries before sweetened yogurt became a thing. Lots of babies are fine with unsweetened yogurt before theyre exposed to the other kinds. But if they're exposed to sweetened yogurt, of course they won't want to go back to unsweetened.

Reality

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 10:34 am

amother Navyblue wrote:

Maybe they want to give foods that will actually get eaten?

Most kids I know wouldn't touch unsweetened yogurt. And not for lack of trying.

WIC is also for pregnant and breastfeeding women. They can certainly eat plain yogurt.

My kids always ate plain yogurt. They wanted to eat what Mommy was eating.

Amarante

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 10:49 am

You don’t eat yogurt plain anyway.

You mix it with real fruit which is either fresh or frozen and it is healthy and much more delicious than the flavored yogurts who essentially put some jam in yogurt.

I realize I will be over simplifying but it is innate biological preference for sweetness in all mammals including humans to seek out sweetness. It is actually used by plants as a defense as many dangerous plants are bitter whereas most sweet things are safe to eat. Animals and humans went to great length to find sources of sweetness like honey.

Until relatively recently sweet stuff was expensive and relatively rare. But of course today sweet is a very inexpensive way to add flavor to all kinds of foods that would not have been sweetened like peanut butter or even bread. Some recipes that people use are essentially sugar dumped onto protein. If you read the ingredients in duck sauce it is sugar mixed with some other flavors. 🤷‍♀️

ETA - Ingredients in Golds Duck Sauce

Water is the main ingredient - then TWO forms of sugar - Dextrose which is a sugar and "sugar" which is a sugar. There are peaches or apricots but so far down on the list they are a minor ingredient

Water, Dextrose, Sugar, Peaches and/or Apricots (Preserved with Sulfur Dioxide), Vinegar, Salt, Guar Gum, Paprika, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavor and Garlic.

Here are the ingredients for Welch's Grape Jelly - which actually contains fruit as the first ingredient - not that I would eat it as a source of fruit Very Happy

Concord Grapes, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Fruit Pectin, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate

Last edited by Amarante on Thu, Jun 29 2023, 12:36 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Heather

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 2:49 pm

amother Seablue wrote:

That's interesting. In NY you can get Normans Greek vanilla and strawberry. The vanilla is delicious. Almost ice cream like.
The nom Greek you can only get plain Mehadrin and Normans.

Back to the topic, I wish they wouldn't be so petty on the cereals and breads. They should be interchangeable. I'd love to buy less cereal and more ww bread.

And cheese. For cy it's literally only American cheese and those purple and blue haolam pkg of sliced. I'd love to change it up with cottage cheese or shredded. I end up using it for ziti, just slicing it up myself before melting it.

Obviously you're going to have less selection if you are makpid on CY.

amother

Seablue

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 2:57 pm

Reality wrote:

Do you get wic now?
It is really the same as you are saying now. Still too much juice and cereal. Still the same peanut butter, but I love it.

amother

Seablue

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 3:00 pm

amother Heather wrote:

Obviously you're going to have less selection if you are makpid on CY.

It is not the selection or CY that is the problem. They approve mehadrin, normans, and hoalom to name a few.
Another poster wrote that in NJ you can get others, which sounds amazing.
But, I could get the yogurt that I like, that NJ can't.

bsy

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 3:04 pm

amother Seablue wrote:

What's wrong with sliced meunster or mozzarella?

amother

Seablue

Thu, Jun 29 2023, 3:09 pm

bsy wrote:

What's wrong with sliced meunster or mozzarella?

Really, nothing.
The taste of that specific one is not amazing. It is sliced thickly. Its fine, I found ways to melt it and use in ziti, grilled cheese etc

They approve this,
https://www.einhornsonline.com.....26091
https://www.einhornsonline.com.....26090
And I'd like to change it up sometimes with something like this,
https://www.einhornsonline.com.....83263